Hello everybody, and welcome back to another video.
Whenever a Windows version reaches its end of support,
I like to do a retrospective video where we take a look back at the operating system
over the years.
So far, I’ve done this with Windows XP in 2014,
Windows Vista in 2017,
and most recently, Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 in 2019.
But today is January 14, 2020.
A date that marks another end of support deadline for a Windows release.
And this time around,
it’s Windows 7.
So in today’s video, we’re gonna be taking one last look at this decade-old operating
system.
I’ll be discussing its origins, development history,
and how it ultimately came to be the most used Windows release worldwide for over
6 years.
Believe it or not, the idea for what would eventually become Windows 7 was
conceived way back in the year 2000.
At this time, Microsoft was developing a roadmap intended to outline their plans
for the next three releases of the Windows operating system.
At the time, these three releases were referred to by their codenames;
Whistler,
Longhorn,
and Blackcomb.
Whistler and Blackcomb were intended to be the next two major releases of
Windows,
with Longhorn being a minor release in between the two,
originally planned to debut sometime around 2003.
Whistler was released in 2001 as Windows XP.
Now, for us to understand the development history of Windows 7,
we have to talk a little bit about Windows Vista’s development history,
and I’ll kind of explain why.
Now, the development process for Longhorn, which would eventually
become Vista, has probably the most complex history of any Windows release.
Because it was intended to be a minor release, Microsoft wanted to implement
most of the advanced technologies and new features it was developing
into Blackcomb,
since that was going to be the next major release of the OS.
But that didn’t go exactly as planned.
Numerous new technologies found their way into Longhorn,
which ultimately caused the release date to be delayed multiple times.
This was one of the reasons that Microsoft actually reset Longhorn’s
development in 2004 to start with a clean slate,
this time, using the Windows Server 2003 codebase as its foundation.
The company also put a much higher priority on developing updates and
service packs for Windows XP,
due to a few major virus outbreaks around that time.
Eventually, this new version of Longhorn came to be known as Windows Vista
when it was released in 2006.
But it’s fair to say that Vista was not the same product that Microsoft started
developing in the early 2000s.
As I’m sure we all know, Vista was met with wide criticism when it launched.
Even though it had such a long development cycle, the OS still suffered
from performance and compatibility issues at launch.
This resulted in many skeptical computer users to make the decision
just to stick with XP.
In fact, OEM computer manufacturers chose to do this as well,
with some still offering Windows XP pre-installed on new computers
even though Windows Vista was the latest release at that time.
It was later announced that the next release of Windows would be codenamed
Windows 7.
Set to be released in 2009,
this new OS had a goal of improving a lot of the performance issues that Vista
suffered from.
Like Vista and Longhorn, this new OS was distinct from Blackcomb.
It was an entirely new project.
However, the concept of these three Windows releases,
XP, Vista, and 7,
was conceived in the roadmap that Microsoft created in the year 2000.
Ultimately, Windows 7 just kept its codename as the official release name
when it debuted in 2009.
As for its launch, Windows 7 was met with WAY more positive reviews than
Windows Vista.
According to the BBC, in an article posted on July 15, 2009,
pre-orders for Windows 7 on Amazon’s UK store outsold all copies of Vista sold
in its 17-week pre-order period
in just 8 hours.
When it was eventually released, market share for the OS grew rapidly over time.
According to StatCounter, when Windows 7 was released to general availability in
October 2009,
Windows Vista held about 25% of Windows version market share
worldwide.
In contrast, XP, which was 8 years old at this point,
still dominated the Windows computer space with a market share of around 70%.
It took less than 1 year for Windows 7 to hold more market share than Vista,
but XP remained on top for a little while longer.
It wasn’t until October of 2011 when Windows 7 finally surpassed XP,
holding almost half of all Windows computer market share worldwide.
It remained the #1 most used Windows version,
even after Windows 8,
Windows 8.1,
and even Windows 10 were released!
Despite the fact that Windows 10 was initially offered as a completely free
upgrade for all 7, 8, and 8.1 users,
it did not surpass Windows 7 in market share until February 2018,
almost 3 years after its initial release.
This was mostly due to the numerous concerns people had about Windows 10.
With its telemetry, automatic updates, and privacy concerns, there were a lot of
Windows users that just simply stuck with Windows 7,
despite Microsoft’s numerous efforts to get people to upgrade.
Even going as far as to block updates to all computers running Windows 7 on the
latest generation of Intel and AMD processors.
Although users were quick to find workaround to this problem.
But today is finally the day that Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 7.
This means that if you’re still running Windows 7 on your computer,
you will no longer get security updates and patches through Windows Update.
Now it’s worth noting that Microsoft has actually created an extended security
update program for Windows 7,
where users of 7 Professional and Enterprise can opt to pay Microsoft
directly for up to 3 more years of support.
But unfortunately for consumers,
these updates are only available for businesses who are still in the process of
upgrading their systems.
And even if this was available to you, if you opted to get all 3 years of support,
it’s going to cost you more than a Windows 10 license in the long run.
So obviously, Microsoft recommends for those people still running Windows 7
to just go about updating to Windows 10.
But ultimately, it’s up to you.
Windows 7 right now still holds over 25% of Windows computer market share,
and it’s likely that a percentage of those users just won’t update.
But if you decide to stay on Windows 7, just be prepared,
because some popular software developers will eventually follow in
Microsoft’s footsteps and drop Windows 7 support for their applications,
some sooner than later.
We’ve seen this happen before when both XP and Vista lost support from Microsoft.
Basically, you’re not going to be able to rely on Microsoft anymore to keep your
system secure.
And hey, do you wanna know something else that you can’t really rely on to keep
yourself secure?
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So that my friends, is the story of Windows 7.
The operating system that was released to wide appeal in 2009,
and ultimately dominated the Windows computer space for years.
That’s all for today’s video.
I’d like to thank you all very much for watching.
If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to give it a like and get subscribed.
And as always, I will see you...
in the next video.
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