Steam survey shows Windows 8 on the rise, beats XP
There are not many reliable sources for operating system market share trends. Microsoft for instance does not reveal those information even though it could, and usage trend sites like W3schools or Net Market Share do not have the reach to paint a clear picture. This becomes obvious when you compare trends with each other.
Lets take Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system as an example. Netmarketshare sees Microsoft's newest operating system at 2.67% of all systems in February 2012 which is barely in front of Apple's newest system Mac OS X 10.8. But when you look at W3Schools, you will notice that the site sees Windows 8's usage share by 4.8% which is nearly double of the Netmarketshare value, and that's missing a whole month of data.
Many gamers are usually on the forefront when it comes to technology, and the main reason for that is that games are more demanding than the majority of other applications one can run on the system. The February 2013 Steam survey should still come as a surprise to many who have predicted that Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system will fail big time. In it, the operating system snagged away Windows XP"s third place in combined operating system share.
According to Valve's survey, Windows 8 systems account for 9.63% of all user PCs that took part in the survey. It is up that month by 0.87% and trailing Windows 7 which is the dominating system on Steam with more than 68%. As far as Windows XP goes, it is having a combined share of 9.33% and lost 0.72% since the last survey took place.
It needs to be noted that Steam surveys are optional which means that the statistics are generated from part of the userbase and not all of it. Still, the Windows 8 share is high, probably the highest right now on the Internet. There are explanations for that though. Gamers are more inclined to purchase new hardware due to the taxing nature of computer games. It is reasonable to assume that a larger portion of gamers buys new PCs more frequently than home users who do not play the latest computer games.
Windows 8 shipped exclusively with DirectX 11.1 and while that is a gaming related feature exclusive to the operating system, it is unlikely that it played a large role in the decision making process to upgrade to Windows 8 or purchase a PC running the operating system.
So how does this compare to Windows 7's performance at the same time? According to Arstechnica, Windows 7 had a combined market share of 28.53% five months after its release.
If you are wondering about other stats. Intel is beating AMD with 72.39% to 26.71% in PC processor usage by manufacturer, and NVIDIA is beating ATI with 52.39% to 33.92% in PC graphics card usage. You can check out the latest Steam survey here. Note that you need Flash Player for some of the statistics and information.
Have another explanation for Windows 8's high usage on Steam?
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What mental age of reader are you targeting with the first sentence? 10?
Why not write an article on how to *avoid* upgrading from W10 to W11. Analogous to those like me who avoided upgrading from 7 to 10 for as long as possible.
If your paymaster Microsoft permits it, of course.
5. Rufus
6. Ventoy
PS. I hate reading these “SEO optimized” articles.
I used Rufus to create an installer for a 6th gen intel i5 that had MBR. It upgraded using Setup. No issues except for Win 11 always prompting me to replace my local account. Still using Win 10 Pro on all my other PCs to avoid the bullying.
bit pointless to upgrade for the sake of upgrading as you never know when you’ll get locked out because ms might suddenly not provide updates to unsupported systems.
ps…. time travelling?
written. Jan 15, 2023
Updated • Jan 13, 2023
This happens when you schedule a post in WordPress and update it before setting the publication date.
Anyone willing to downgrade to this awful OS must like inflicting themselves with harm.
I have become convinced now that anybody who has no qualms with using Windows 11/10 must fit into one of the following brackets:
1) Too young to remember a time before W10 and W11 (doesn’t know better)
2) Wants to play the latest games on their PC above anything else (or deeply needs some software which already dropped W7 support)
3) Doesn’t know too much about how computers work, worried that they’d be absolutely lost and in trouble without the “”latest security””
4) Microsoft apologist that tries to justify that the latest “features” and “changes” are actually a good thing, that improve Windows
5) Uses their computer to do a bare minimum of like 3 different things, browse web, check emails, etc, so really doesn’t fuss
Obviously that doesn’t cover everyone, there’s also the category that:
6) Actually liked W7 more than 10, and held out as long as possible before switching, begrudgingly uses 10 now
Have I missed any group off this list?
You have missed in this group just about any professional user that uses business software like CAD programs or ERP Programs which are 99% of all professional users from this list.
Linux doesn’t help anyone who is not a linux kid and apple is just a fancy facebook machine.
Microsoft has removed KB5029351 update
only from windows update though
KB5029351 is still available from the ms update catalog site
1. This update is labaled as PREVIEW if it causes issues to unintelligent people, then they shouldn’t have allowed Preview updates ot install.
2. I have installed it in a 11 years old computer, and no problems at all.
3. Making a big drama over a bluescreen for an updated labeled as preview is ridiculous.
This is probably another BS internet drama where people ran programs and scripts that modified the registry until they broke Windows, just for removing stuff that they weren’t even using just for the sake of it.
Maybe people should stop playing geeks and actually either use Windows 10 or Windows 11, but don’t try to modify things just for the sake of it.
Sometimes removing or stopping things (like defender is a perfect example) only need intelligence, not scripts or 3rd party programs that might mess with windows.
Windows 11 was a pointless release, it was just created because some of the Windows team wanted to boost sales with some sort of new and improved Windows 10. Instead, Microsoft cannot support one version well let alone two.
Windows 11 is the worst ugly shame by Microsoft ever. They should release with every new W11 version a complete free version of Starallback inside just to make this sh** OS functionally again.
motherboard maker MSI has recently released a statement regarding the “unsupported processor” blue screen error for their boards using Intel 600/700 series chipsets & to avoid the KB5029351 Win11 update:
https://www.msi.com/news/detail/MSI-On–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–Error-Message-of-Windows-11-Update-KB5029351-Preview-142215
check out the following recent articles:
Neowin – Microsoft puts little blame on its Windows update after UNSUPPORTED PROCESSOR BSOD bug:
https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-puts-little-blame-on-its-windows-update-after-unsupported-processor-bsod-bug/
BleepingComputer – Microsoft blames ‘unsupported processor’ blue screens on OEM vendors:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-blames-unsupported-processor-blue-screens-on-oem-vendors/
While there may be changes or updates to the Windows 10 Store for Business and Education in the future, it is premature to conclude that it will be discontinued based solely on rumors.
My advice, I left win 15 years ago. Now I’m a happy linux user (linuxmint) but there is Centos, Fedora, Ubuntu depending on your needs.
motherboard maker MSI has recently released new BIOS/firmware updates for their Intel 600 & 700 series motherboards to fix the “UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR” problem (Sept. 6):
https://www.msi.com/news/detail/Updated-BIOS-fixes-Error-Message–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–caused-BSOD-on-MSI-s-Intel-700-and-600-Series-Motherboards-142277
I try to disable the Diagnostics Tracking Service (Connected Devices Platform User Services) but it wont let me disable it, any help will be greatly appreciated.
Tank you for your help