Windows 7 hits 100 million licenses mark, becomes Microsoft's fastest-selling OS
By Donald Melanson 
posted April 27th 2010 5:57PM
posted April 27th 2010 5:57PM
It's hardly been a secret that Windows 7 was on track to become Microsoft's fastest-selling operating system, but the company has just now finally made that designation official, and also revealed that the OS has crossed the magical 100 million licenses sold mark in the process. In other words, that translates to Windows 7 being installed on one in ten of the world's PCs just six months after it launched, which is pretty darn impressive any way you slice it -- or punch it, as the case may be.
In before people whining about how bad Vista was.
Also, if they sold 100 million licenses, you can assume that it is installed on ~200 million computer systems, at least.
@Evan
How bad? Not very bad at all, would be the answer. Early issues were due to drivers and system builders selling below spec computers, but both things were addressed. Vista in its current state is not that far off from 7.
@Evan
Vista was shit. I'm not whining; I'm just sayin'.
@Evan SP1 of Vista was OK on my comp. I just needed to upgrade the RAM.
@Evan
It just goes to show you how many people didn't like vista, and have now made the jump from XP to Win 7.
@Evan
Well, 7 is Microsoft's lucky number!
@Nitesh You don't have to tell me, I bought Vista Ultimate x64 and I have used it for the past 2 years with no problems. I just know that people like Bushrod who probably never used Vista for a day in their life are going to go around bashing what they don't know.
Apple should put this in their next terrible commercial if Steve can stop raging over the iPhone 4 leak that is.
@Evan
Vista seemed to run absolutely fine for me.
@Evan
I apologize ahead of time for provoking the masses unto downranking Nirvana, but it has to be said: I really never had a problem with Vista... I don't really like MS as a company, but Vista always worked for me, and Windows 7 should be a pretty seamless upgrade for me when I'm ready.
*shrugs*
@Nitesh
I'm not so sure. I've never used Vista but heard nothing but horror stories about how slowly it ran on our corp hardware.
I've got 7 on a 3.5 year old corp laptop (Windows experience score 4) and it rocks, way faster than XP.
@Evan It's the best OS i've ever used. It never crashes or even slows down, before people start saying the old stuff about previous Windows versions. And Vista was unfairly slammed.
@UnixSystemsEngineer So jealous of you. Most of our comps are still using Vista Enterprise.
It works fine, but I miss the features I have on my home computers w/ 7.
@Evan
Vista after SP1 was pretty good. It's just 7 is better.
So it goes.
@UnixSystemsEngineer
I love Windows 7 64-bit, have it on my Lenovo T61p with 4GB of RAM. The perception of better speed in Windows 7 is not accurate. I bet you $100 via paypal that if you wiped your machine and setup XP SP3 from scratch it would be faster to startup and faster to open major applications than the exact same wipe and rebuild on Windows 7.
Windows 7 is awesome but it's not faster than a clean install of XP SP3 on any computer that I've ever heard of.
@Evan Can haz Windows 8? Yes I'm greedy.
@treats
Yeah, somebody in Engadget told me that Apple instead of obsessed with market share like microsoft, now focus on profitable instead. So here's an clear example of extreme profitable and extreme market shares. Yes Microsoft has both.
@theaussiepunk
I see your $100, and raise you $200 on the fact that I bet if you complete a clean install of Win 98, that it will run faster than XP!
@Evan that was most people.. i loved vista, i had 0 problems with it. i used to hear people all the time bash vista and when i asked them how long they have had it they always say, i never got it.
it was the case of people with 2001 computers with 256mb of memory and a 556mhz processor trying to put vista on them old ass cpu's and got mad when it said not to do it.. they did it anyway and the system crashed and would not work right
@Evan
LOL, funny :P
@Nitesh
Vista actually saved my life in college because some unknown bug in my piece of crap laptop was causing my inputs (mouse, keyboard, etc.) and outputs (monitor, speakers) to lag every second or so, and it would become really bad and unbearable in Windows XP. I looked everywhere for the cause of this issue, and nothing I found ever fixed it. I upgraded the laptop to 2 gigs of RAM, installed Vista, and my issues were all fixed.
Lovin' it lovin' it like thiiiiis!
@Evan
Was about to say the same thing myself
@Evan
I've had no real problems with Vista these past two years (especially after disabling the UAC). It definitely was the press/media that hurt Vista sales, kinda like what they are doing with Toyota.
I bet Windows 8 will look a lot like Windows Phone 7 ... it will be a complete change to the current Windows.
@John Doe
"Can haz Windows 8? Yes I'm greedy."
I hear Gizmodo is in negotiations with a barfly over a certain "found" OS disc.
@Evan
Well... I contributed to 3 home premium and 1 ultimate license for Windows 7, whereas Only 1 Ultimate for Vista
@Dirtball Rotten
Upgraded my Dell XPS 600 (one of the top end PCs at the time) from XP to Vista and HELL did it slow down that machine.
Anyways, it's about Win7 this time round and although I have no comparison, I too think that the sales are boosted by customers who skipped Vista (or have Vista) and are simply in need of an upgrade, in hope it'll provide better performance.
@Evan
I use Vista since it was available in laptop and I face lots of problem. I have currently installed 7 in the same laptop and all the problems diappear.
You are just defending Vista on something that you have no idea about.
@Nitesh
Vista is in a good state now? My question to you: On what computer? On most low-ends (the general population), it's a nightmare of lags, moans, groans, and kidney stones. And the security popups (yeah most people can't figure out how to disable them) could make you scratch your eyes out.
No wonder W7 sold so well... almost the entire planet skipped Vista.
@Evan Just imagine how many copies of Windows 7 they'd sell if that fat bald blowhard wasn't the marketing face of the company... ROFL! xD
They really should hide these unappealing CEOs and have some highly trained sweet personality hotty act as the corporate face. It works for just about every other product from the cowboy voice of Whataburger to the celebrities on long-term contracts with hair-products and the like.
@Evan
Windows 7 is still being sold on below spec computers. That's the number 1 reason why people switch to mac later on.
@Evan
Vista was bad though.
Windows 7 is a breath of fresh air and I'm so glad that MS released it. Its amazing how frustrated I was even doing simple tasks in Vista.
Great Job Microsoft. Whatever Windows 8 is please make it more of the WIN that Windows 7 was!
@Ducman69
Looks like the haters have arrived
@EtSchmit
I really hope you're not referring to me...
I have no issues with MS or Windows 7. I love it to death. Its what Vista should have/could have been.
But w/e keep on lying...
@Evan
Hold on, does this include Windows Mobile 7? Gotta be careful with Microsoft.
@Evan This picture is priceless -- I've been using Windows 7 since its beta and I didn't have a problem like the one I received from vista. Impressions. http://j.mp/windows-7-ads
@David Bailey I agree I had vista for about 6 months before I got my free windows 7 upgrade. Vista worked just fine and never crashed. I think people did not like the change Microsoft did. They wanted change and microsoft gave it to them.
@Evan With 50 million still on the shelf unsold around the world! Nice!
@Evan
I don't understand why everyone think Vista was bad because it was slow on old machines! I tried installing OSX snow leopard on my friends 5 year old mac and the guy at the store told me it wasn't even supported. No one seems to care that Apple basically forces its users to pay up for a new computer or live with using Firefox 2 (because newer versions arent available for 10.3). Vista worked fine if you have a gig of ram (which is was what 30$ back then?). You'd think ppl who visit this site would have the brains to try things out for themselves instead of jumping on the bandwagon...
@Matt314
"..installing OSX snow leopard on my friends 5 year old mac and ...Apple basically forces its users to pay up for a new computer"
I call BS, Snow Leopard is a UNIX for Intel based binary. 'Less your friends Mac was made in at least 2006, you just can't run it on a PowerPC. I doubt you ever got pass the install screen.
Considering that the average WinTel box gets updated every 1.8 years (see Moores Law), I say 5 years for a Mac great, and your friend can still get his equity out of it at usedmacs.com versus used-pcs.com (the average PC of the same age is worth $30 bucks).
Congrats on Microsoft's Next Good Enough OS. Microsoft makes good software that meets the single goal of being good enough to be very profitable, but never great. Apple on the other hand meets the goal of making great products at an expensive price.
We all deserve choice, and I for one enjoy opening up a new laptop without having crap preinstalled on it (its called a mac with VMWare). Good bye Toshiba Launcher, Dell Support Center, Sony Update Center Supreme, Trial ware Deluxxx 8, Anti-Spammer 3000, DVD Cinema Player 18.1 (well, finally Windows has a native codec, who-would have thought?), and then be harassed with having to install sub-par, *what should be operating system features* (as in make the computer continue to operate effectively) such as McCrappie Anti Virus and something other then the completely useless Windows Backup (Is Not Responding) dare I say sh*tware.
@EtSchmit
After 20 years of having this crap shoved down our throats, you be we're here. So f*cking what if the latest version of the monopoly product that started with MS-DOS has sold more copies faster. Microsoft has a stranglehold on the market. The market generally grows over time. Just the process of "monopoly inflation" should make each new version of the monopoly product bigger than the last.
Windows 7 is not a real product. It's just an updated version of what Dell, HP, Gateway and friends were force feeding us before. If it weren't Windows N, it would be Windows N-1.
So who really cares if Windows N+1 is selling a lot of copies?
@Evan I'm using Vista right now. To tell you the truth, I haven't found much of a reason to upgrade... I'll probably switch to 7 when I get a laptop, but so far, Vista is great. It's very stable. I've run into issues once in a while with a program crashing, but I've always been able to fix those issues (thanks to Google), and so far, I haven't had any issues with it. At its current state, Windows Vista is a stable, functional OS. You couldn't pay me to switch back to XP, even when Vista was without a Service Pack.
@Evan Yet I am still running the RC pure laziness.
@Steveorevo
If you are in the "power user" category you are going to have the same issues on both W7 and OSX. I run into that crap you mention on leopard all the time. And how did you let your computer make it out of day 1 without blowing all that crap away?
@1mc but there's no mention how much these are "sold" for. Sold is a funny thing, It just means they wrote contracts with big OEMS to buy a whole bunch... I don't think there have BEEN 100M computers sold since Windows 7 was released. Also, what is the version spread. They are certainly not selling those $300 upgrade copies...I'd guess more like the $45 starter copies on netbooks. It's all numbers to be played.
@Evan FYI I didn't have any problems with my Vista, wonder why my friends are always complaining....
@theaussiepunk
coming from a person who has xp, SP3, id love for this to be true, horridly its not :'(
@Steveorevo
the irony in your post, you enjoy choice yet arent given a choice of flash (i guess youre going to insult it in reply either way) youre not given a decent level of antivirus, so when people DO start looking to make Mac Viruses youre screwed XD
oh, and good luck upgrading your mac :)
but heck, at least itunes works well for you, right? :)
@mabhatter
its still a sale :)
plus, take into account the amount of pirated copies, i think MS are in excess of having their system on at least 200mill (i know of 1 person who has definetly a brought copy, and about 30 i know have a pirate copy)