How Do 400 Million Windows 7 Licenses Compare Against Windows XP and Vista History?

Steve Ballmer proudly announced that Microsoft has sold 400 million Windows 7 licenses. It's a big number by any measure, but how does it compare to Windows Vista and Windows XP?

It has become a tradition for me that I am looking a bit closer into Microsoft's operating system license shipments every time Microsoft announces a new number with the subtle remark that a certain Windows is the fastest selling operating system ever. I don't know about you, but I never heard Microsoft ever announcing that any of its OSes was not the fastest selling OS in Windows history. Even Vista was, apparently, but we know that Vista wasn't exactly a success which tells us that a big number does not mean necessarily that a particular OS is a big success.

So, do 400 million Windows 7 licenses mean that Windows 7 is a big hit? Let's see.

We need to break this number down and put it in perspective to actual PC sales. Windows 7 launched on October 22, 2009 and has sold, on average, about 20 million licenses per month since then (give or take a few hundred thousand per month to even out the pre-sales event preceding the OS launch in 2009). During those 20 months, the global PC industry sold about 591 million PCs, which means that Microsoft shipped about 68 Windows licenses for every 100 PCs sold (let's forget the upgrades for a moment and take this number as a way to compare sales).

What is particularly stunning about the 20 million-per-month number is the fact that it is very consistent and there seems to almost clockwork in play to achieve those 20 million units. 100 million Windows 7 licenses were sold after 6 months, 150 million after 8 months, 240 million after 12 months and 300 million after 15 months. It is almost spooky. Windows 7 sales may be declining just a tad from the 8 month mark, but it's not significant.

Windows Vista, in comparison, sold 128 million licenses in 9 months, or 12 months, if we include the 3-month Express Upgrade cycle that enabled Microsoft to make the 2006/2007 holiday season (Vista was officially released to retail in January 2007, but was available through a coupon beginning in October 2006). So, a fair comparison would be that Vista sold just over 10 million units per month in the first year. Microsoft then announced 180 million units in August 2008 or 19/22 months after launch, which dropped the average to about 8 million units per month: interestingly enough, that means that Windows 7 has outsold Vista already as Windows Vista sold 384 million licenses in a best case scenario (48 months * 8 million units) until it was discontinued in October of last year.

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Windows forecast shows XP's one-of-a-kind dominance

 Windows 7 will top out at a 41% share, less than half XP's peak

Computerworld - Windows XP may be the last Microsoft operating system to hold a majority share, according to data from Web metrics company Net Applications.

At its peak, Windows XP powered more than eight out of every 10 computers worldwide. In November 2007, the earliest month for which Computerworld has Net Applications' data, XP accounted for 83.6% of all operating systems.

Although Windows XP's share has gradually declined since then, it still enjoys a slight majority: Last month, XP owned a 52.4% share.

The long lag time between Windows XP's release in 2001 and Vista's debut in late 2006 -- combined with Vista's stumble in the marketplace -- are the factors usually cited to explain XP's large-scale and long-term dominance.

Both conditions could be reproduced -- Microsoft might face future failures like Vista -- but the one least likely to happen again is the five-year gap between upgrades.

That's because Microsoft has taken to a three-year development cycle. Even though the company has been mum about a ship date for Windows 8, the operating system it showed off last week, most experts have pegged its release to the fall of 2012, or three years after Windows 7's launch.

With a regular cadence between upgrades, it's unlikely that any one edition of Windows will be able to duplicate XP's supremacy.

Forecasts based on Net Applications' numbers bear that out.

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How To Fix BSOD UNMOUTABLE_BOOT _VOLUME

Last Friday, a friend of mine asked me to fix his Dell OptiPlex GX 620 having BSOD Unmountable_Boot_Volume.

Ok, here is what I’ve done:

1. Booted the computer to see the problem and confirm it myself. My friend did not know exactly what the error is.

2. Tried booting in Safe Mode knowing that there is really a problem.

3. Then I hit the BSOD Unmountable_Boot_Volume error.

4. Forced reboot the computer by holding the power button.

5. Booted using Windows XP installation disk that comes with the computer (dell)

6. Went to Recovery Console

7. Issued command: chkdsk /r (check disk with repair option), that particular error is caused by dirty or faulty hard drive sectors.

8. Waited for more than an hour to finish the process.

9. While still in Recover Console, I issued: fixboot to fix the boot sectors.

10. Exit Recovery Console and rebooted the computer.

11. Updated the sound card (Realtek Audio Driver) and video card (ATI)

11. Rejoiced! Error is fixed.

Reference on the internet for Windows XP computers are everywhere and this is one thing I like about Windows XP. J

Is My Computer Dead?

This is a follow-up post with PC Won't Turn On post.

Today I managed to thoroughly test/troubleshoot my problematic computer. Here are what I’ve done:

1. Remove motherboard from its casing. I wanted to make sure that there is no faulty grounding.
2. Replace power supply unit, for isolation purposes.
3. Remove HDD, RAM, Video card and tested the board with only CPU installed. I was expecting for RAM or video card error.
4. Re-installed RAM, hoping that will give me video card error as its not yet installed.
5. Re-installed video card, hoping that it will give me HDD error.
6. Re-installed HDD, hoping it will boot properly.
7. System speaker may also be faulty as it don’t make any sound.

I’ve tried each procedure twice in minimum but gave me no joy.

CPU fan and video card fan turns on when powered on but nothing happen. No leaking/bloated capacitors or simply no visual issues on motherboard and its peripherals.

I am now thinking of buying new computer as replacement.

Any suggestions or comments are highly appreciated.

Thanks!

Gartner: The bell tolls for Windows XP

Computerworld - ORLANDO -- There are a number of IT trends users will see in coming years, but one that's expected to rise to the top will be the need to migrate off Windows XP and Office 2003 as the end of support nears.

In its annual list of the top 10 trends in infrastructure and operations, IT research firm Gartner detailed at its Symposium/ITExpo conference here the shrinking of data centers as users shift more work to cloud services, for one (see the full list below), but the standout issue for many will be the pending end-of-support dates for the Microsoft products.

Support for Window XP and Office 2003 ends in April 2014.

Although desktop operating system migration ranked No. 7 on the list, Gartner analyst David Cappuccio indicated that it would prove to be a more critical issue to some people.

"You may find yourself in a situation where these migrations become the dominant projects in your organizations over the next few months," Cappuccio said. "It's just a fact of life that we can only milk a cow for so long," he said, of the still widely used operating system.

Matt Holmes, systems manager for Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kan., said the Windows migration is "definitely" an issue.

"Over the summer we just had a round of 'firefighting' where we had a bunch of Windows XP SP2 machines that had to get upgraded to Service Pack 3 because of end-of-life support," said Holmes, who was at the conference. "I think it kind of snuck up on the desktop support folks."

The college plans to migrate to Windows 7, he said.

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Windows XP Downgrade Extended to 2020

Due to insisting public demand Microsoft announced the extension of Windows XP downgrade until 2020.

The company that I an working will benefit from this. The entire corporation is still using Windows XP SP3 and no incompatibility at all. Guess this is a big slash from IT budget.

Don't you think its too long - 2010?
One thing I like about this is we have time off sorting out new compute issues, windows driver issue, and other hardware incompatibility.

Read below news from Tomshardware.com

Another decade of Windows XP -- who's excited?!

While the consumer and enthusiast are now happily moving to Windows 7, businesses are still chugging along on Windows XP. This would present a problem for businesses buying and installing new computers in the workplace if not for the Windows XP downgrade program available to OEM Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate SKUs.

Originally, these downgrade rights were to disappear once Microsoft ships the first Service Pack in 2011, but upon the release of the SP1 beta, Microsoft announced that it would extend the XP downgrade period through to January 2020 for the Professional and January 2015 for the Ultimate edition (dates according to Computerworld).

"This will help maintain consistency for downgrade rights throughout the Windows 7 lifecycle," wrote Microsoft spokesman Brandon LeBlanc, in an entry on the company blog. "As a result, the OEM versions of Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate will continue to include downgrade rights to the similar versions of Windows Vista or Windows XP Professional. Going forward, businesses can continue to purchase new PCs and utilize end user downgrade rights to Windows XP or Windows Vista until they are ready to use Windows 7. Enabling such rights throughout the Windows 7 lifecycle will make it easier for customers as they plan deployments to Windows 7."

Continue reading - TomsHardware

hal.dll Error

One computer in the office today got an hal.dll error when she open her computer. Being the IT in the room I was ask for help. First look I know that it is repairable by going to Recovery Console and replacing the missing file. But I was reluctant to repair it because I'm not hired as IT but a database consultant and I don't Windows XP install CD.

I advised my office mate to report it to our IT helpdesk. OK, so after few hours I saw her working on another workstation as her laptop (Dell Latitude d630) is diagnosed to have faulty HDD, to my surprised I've chatted our IT personnel to ask what happened. Our IT department is good, they've run Dell diagnostic tool which reported the said issue.

So her laptop is now waiting for Dell technician to replace the HDD, good that its still under warranty but sorry that she lost most of her files.

After few research I've found out that my bet of repairing it via recovery console is the best solution but this is provided that the HDD is healthy which is not my case.

See my resources:

1. pcsupport.com
2. microsoft.com
3. windows drivers

Just another computer troubleshooting reference. :)

Windows XP Device Manager – Floppy Disk Controller and Drives

Was working on a friend computer having error with Windows XP Driver, the audio device is not recognized by Windows XP when I noticed that Floppy disk controller and Floppy disk drive are listed on device driver even no such device are installed.






Out of curiosity I wanted to know how can disable it. My quick search reveals below:

When you disable the floppy controller in Device Manager, it may also be disabled in the computer's Basic Input/Output System (BIOS).

When you disable the floppy controller in Device Manager, it may also be disabled in the computer's Basic Input/Output System (BIOS).

This issue occurs because of a problem with the Plug and Play BIOS used by some computers.

To resolve this issue, contact the computer manufacturer to inquire about the availability of an updated BIOS for your computer.

To work around this issue, re-enable the floppy controller in the computer's BIOS. For information about how to do so, contact the computer manufacturer.

This is from Microsoft...

I also tried disabling floppy controller in the BIOS, it was easy but when I checked device manager it is still there....

Disabling it on the device manager may be the easiest for the moment.








This process will disable the device but still show it on Device Manager so I guess we have to contact motherboard manufacturer to get BIOS update or anything..

Is My Motherboard Dead?

My third computer just doesn’t open after whole day of using it.
Was happily using it the whole day with my regular workload, internet, MS Office and some webpage designing. So I rested for an hour then back again but to my surprise it doesn’t open.

• No beeping
• No display in the monitor
• CPU fan is working.

I opened the CPU box to check what is happening inside. Everything seems to be normal. So I tried to reseat the RAM then power on expecting to hear beeping to no avail. Then I removed all connection and cleaned everything inside the CPU box, I was actually expecting that dirt is causing loose connection but still no joy. I also tried replacing PSU with a working one but still no joy.

I’m now checking for motherboard replacement. Do you think it’s the culprit?
It has Windows XP on it with all windows drivers updated.

Thank guys!