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Windows 7 vs. Windows 10: 5 Reasons Your Old Love Is Still Going Strong

Some people refuse to give up Windows 7 and upgrade to Windows 10. Why? Well, there are lots of contributing factors.

Windows 10 is now more than three years old. The operating system certainly isn’t perfect, but users and critics both mostly agree that it’s is the best operating system Microsoft has ever produced.

And yet some people refuse to give up Windows 7. Why? There are lots of contributing factors. Let’s take a look.

How Many People Still Use Windows 7?

Windows 7 and Windows 10 are almost neck and neck in terms of user numbers.

Precise figures are impossible to find. However, StatCounter said Windows 10 had overtaken Windows 7’s market share back in February 2018. Contrarily, the latest data from analytics company Net Applications (August 2018) put Windows 7 on 40.3% and Windows 10 on 37.8%.

In truth, most of the Windows 7 market share is made up by the business sector. Many of those companies are now scrambling to make the switch to Windows 10. Free extended support for Windows 7 will end in January 2020, less than 18 months away (we’ve got tips for Windows 7 at end of life.) If they want official support through to 2023, they will have to pay a considerable price.

But even away from the business world, lots of home users refuse to upgrade—despite mainstream support ending in January 2015. Before continuing, make sure you know how to check your Windows version if you’re not sure.

Why Is Windows 7 Still So Popular?

In July 2019, Windows 7 will celebrate its 10th birthday. The fact it’s still clinging on to its title as the world’s most popular operating system nearly a decade after its release is a testament to its original quality.

But let’s be honest, there’s no way that a 10-year-old operating system should be number one. So, what’s going on? Why do so many people and businesses still use it?

Here are our top five reasons.

1. Security and Privacy

If you spend some time browsing this topic on the web’s various dedicated Windows forums, there’s one reason that stands out above all others: security and privacy.

The biggest criticism leveled at Windows 10 is its ongoing collection of telemetry data. It’s a valid point; Windows 10 does amass far more data about your usage habits than Windows 7. Lots of users are uncomfortable with it and choose not to upgrade.

Luckily, if you’re a privacy fanatic, there are plenty of third-party tools you can use that’ll entirely disable the telemetry on Windows 10.

As for the operating system’s security, the argument that Windows 7 is more secure than Windows 10 is downright false. Features like Device Guard, UEFI secure boot, BitLocker, and Windows Hello all make the newer operating system much more robust.

The facts support the theory. Security firm Webroot says the average Windows 10 machine had 0.04 malware files present in 2017, while the average Windows 7 computer had 0.08 malware files. Furthermore, just 15 percent of all malware was on Windows 10 machines, while 63 percent was on Windows 7.

2. Software Compatibility and Legacy Apps

Windows 7 still boasts better software compatibility than Windows 10.

Of course, we’re not talking about Photoshop, Spotify, Microsoft Word, Steam or any of the other mainstream apps; they all supported Windows 10 from its release day.

Instead, we’re talking about the millions of third-party apps and proprietary in-house software that often perform a very specific function and which lots of people rely on every day. Indeed, the reliance on legacy software is why so many businesses have been slow to upgrade.

Similarly, lots of people don’t want to upgrade to Windows 10 because they heavily rely on legacy Windows 7 apps and features that are not part of the newer operating system.

For example, Windows Photo Viewer and Windows Movie Maker can be installed on Windows 10, but in practical terms, they are both dead. Microsoft has also completely killed Windows Media Center in Windows 10. Perhaps apps like Kodi and Plex can fill the void, but a lot of users want to keep using the same apps that they’ve used for the last decade.

3. Familiarity

Many people worry about adapting to new things when it comes to technology. Menus and settings in different places can lead to confusion and decreased productivity.

One only has to look at the debacle over the Start menu in Windows 8 to see evidence of the hysteria in action. In hindsight, was a Start screen rather than a Start menu really that bad? Probably not.

If you’ve been using Windows 7 exclusively since its release in 2009—and you never used the transitory Windows 8—the different between interfaces, layouts, and menus is jarring.

For some Windows 7 users, it’s simply not worth spending the time to adapt to the new version.

4. Hardware Restrictions

On paper, Windows 7 and Windows 10 have identical hardware requirements. They are:

• Processor: 1 GHz or faster.
• RAM: 1 GB (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit).
• Free hard disk space: 16 GB.
• Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM driver.

However, if you try to install Windows 10 on a computer at the bottom end of those specs, you’re going to run into considerable difficulties.

I speak from experience; my wife had an old Dell Notebook lying around with a 1Ghz processor and 1 GB of RAM. I performed a clean install of Windows 10, but after completion, the hardware struggled to complete even the most basic tasks in a timely manner

For people whose hardware is showing its age, it’s just too much of a risk to upgrade to Windows 10.

5. Forced Updates

Three years after launch, and the Windows 10 forced update saga is still rumbling on. Yes, the situation is much better than it used to be. But no, you still don’t have 100 percent control over your operating system.

And for lots of people, that lack of control is a red line. What happens if an update breaks an app you rely on every day? After all, it’s not like Microsoft (or any other company) has a blemish-free record when it comes to buggy updates.

Again, for some people, the potential risk is simply not worth taking in exchange for the perceived limited benefits.

Should You Upgrade to Windows 10?

In a word, yes. MakeUseOf strongly recommends that you upgrade to Windows 10. The new operating system offers more features, a more modern user interface, and enhanced security when compared to its predecessor.

We also recommend that for problem-free Windows 10 experience, you perform a clean install of the operating system. Just make sure you create full backups of all your data before you do so. And before you upgrade to Windows 10 Pro, see whether it’s worth the cost.

Need to clear disk space on your Windows computer? Here are the Windows files and folders that can be safely deleted to free up disk space.

Dan joined MakeUseOf in 2014 and has been Partnerships Director since July 2020. Reach out to him for inquires about sponsored content, affiliate agreements, promotions, and any other forms of partnership. You can also find him roaming the show floor at CES in Las Vegas every year, say hi if you’re going. Prior to his writing career, he was a Financial Consultant.

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Ubuntu vs Windows: Which Is Better for Your Computer? [Clone Disk]

By Linda | Follow | Last Updated November 26, 2020

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Summary :

Do you know the differences between Ubuntu and Windows? MiniTool shows you Ubuntu vs Windows from 8 aspects. Keep reading to learn them and you can decide whether to use Ubuntu or keep using Windows.

Quick Navigation :

Brief Introduction to Windows and Ubuntu

Windows is an operating environment developed by Microsoft and introduced on November 20, 1985. After years of development and perfection, this software is relatively mature and stable, and is still the mainstream operating system of current personal computers.

It has good man-machine interaction, supports much application software, and has strong hardware adaptability. Currently, its flagship product is Windows 10, released on July 15, 2015.

Ubuntu, released by Canonical Ltd., is an open-source operating system based on Debian GNU/Linux. It was first introduced in October 2004 and was rated the best Linux distribution in 2005. Its latest release is Ubuntu 19.04.

Many people want to know the differences between Ubuntu and Windows. This post will show you Ubuntu vs Windows in detail. In addition, if you want to know Linux vs Windows, you also need to read this post. After all, Ubuntu is the best Linux distribution.

Ubuntu vs Windows

When we talk about Ubuntu vs Windows, we can’t just say one’s advantages and don’t mention the other’s advantages. Therefore, in this part, I will introduce Ubuntu’s advantages and Windows advantages (equivalent to Ubuntu’s defects) as well.

1. Cost

Ubuntu is an open-source operating system, whose source code can be obtained arbitrarily. It means that you can get it for free. In addition, you can go through Ubuntu’s source code to learn about the inner workings of a cool OS. At the same time, it also allows you to innovate and modify it. In this way, you can make the best contributions you can to it.

As for Windows, it is closed-source and not free. If you build your computer by yourself, you should pay for Windows. If your computer is running an old version of Windows and you want to upgrade it to Windows 10, you should also pay for Windows 10 because the free upgrade that Microsoft offered a couple of years ago has run out.

Windows 10 will cost you $119.99 for the Home edition and $199.99 for the Professional edition. However, there is a case exception: if you plan to buy a new computer, this computer will come with Windows 10. But, to some extent, we still can’t say it is totally free.

2. Hardware Requirement and Compatibility

In this part, I will touch upon two factors: hardware compatibility and hardware requirement.

Apparently, Windows has wider hardware compatibility, because it has the largest group of computer users. However, newer versions of Windows may be not compatible with older device drivers, resulting in that it always forces you to update your hardware.

Some users said that their computer run very slow and asked: what should I upgrade on my pc? This post will tell you how to upgrade computer for maximum performance.

Different from Windows, Ubuntu, relying on the Linux kernel, adheres to the principle that compatibility should never be broken. Therefore, if a hardware device was working once on a Linux-based operating system, it will work forever.

As for Windows vs Ubuntu hardware requirement, please see the following chart.

The required hardware to run Ubuntu or Windows is quite similar, but there are lightweight alternatives (Lubuntu and Xubuntu) that use fewer resources. However, these lightweight versions will lack some features compared to Ubuntu.

3. Software

In this part, I mainly focus on software compatibility and software resource usage.

In general, Windows has wider software compatibility. For example, Microsoft Office and Visual Studio can’t work well in Ubuntu; only a small part of games is available for Ubuntu.

Of course, you can find alternatives for those applications you are used to in Windows. For example, you can use LibreOffice to substitute Microsoft Office, GIMP to substitute Photoshop, etc.

However, as for gaming, it is still the area where Windows is definitely better than Ubuntu. Although you can still play games on Ubuntu, these games are unlikely to run faster in Ubuntu than in Windows. In addition, it’s highly unlikely that a new popular game will support Ubuntu.

This article provides 11 methods to make PC games run faster. It includes four strategies.

As for resource usage, Windows will use more resources than Ubuntu. For example, Windows 10 may use almost double the amount of RAM as Ubuntu. This may be vital if your computer has low RAM.

When the OS uses small resource, more resource will be released to run programs. Therefore, apart from games, almost every software runs faster in Ubuntu.

This article explains what high memory usage is and how to check it. It also gives 11 methods to fix Windows 10 high memory usage caused by most common reasons.

4. UI Customization

Ubuntu is customizable from the moment you install it. It has more customizable options than Windows.

Windows 10 allows you to change the color theme, the cursor and icon themes, the wallpaper, and start menu colors. However, Ubuntu allows you to personalize virtually every single element of your UI/UX, from your notification sounds, popup style, fonts, system animations, and workspaces.

In Windows 10, Microsoft just provides you some modes from which you can choose and personalize your computer. However, in Ubuntu, you can personalize your computer without restriction. For example, the position and the items in the taskbar can be rearranged; the Start menu button can also be removed from taskbar; and the font family in Ubuntu is awesome.

5. Security

In general, Ubuntu is more secure than Windows for the following three reasons:

(1) Ubuntu’s user community is smaller than Windows’s. The more popular the operating system is the more people are interested in writing malicious software for it, because the attackers can profit more when their viruses penetrate a greater number of PCs.

(2) User accounts within Ubuntu have far fewer permissions than in Windows. If you want to make a change to Ubuntu such as installing an application, you need to enter your password to do it, which makes it much more difficult to execute malware or a virus inside Ubuntu.

Likewise, to do damage on Linux-based operating systems, an attacker needs to gain root privilege.

(3) It is an open-source software. Since the majority of the source code that is being executed is freely available, there are a lot of advanced users who will try to patch the vulnerabilities just a few minutes after it is announced.

Is antivirus necessary for Windows 10/8/7 to keep your PC safe? Read this post to get the answer, and you can also know some ways to prevent malware.

6. Privacy

As for privacy, Ubuntu is far more privacy-focused than Windows 10. Most Linux distributions will not collect your data at all. Even if there are some features with privacy risks, for example, sending your search queries to Amazon in an attempt to show relative shopping data, you can disable it.

In addition, because the source code of the operating system is freely available, it can be freely reviewed on the user’s behalf. In a word, the free will of the user in an open-source software is far greater than that in a closed-source software.

As for Windows, it doesn’t take privacy seriously. In Windows, the majority of privacy-intrusive behavior cannot be disabled, even though there are plenty of options available to be turned on and off on the user’s behalf.

Of course, it cannot be said that the above privacy settings are completely unfavorable. For example, the keystrokes on the keyboard are recorded to improve the spelling and other grammar-related things; Cortana learns about the way you talk and sends usage data to Microsoft so that they can use this data to improve the way Cortana works.

Anyway, Ubuntu is far more respectful to its users’ privacy.

Microsoft Compatibility Telemetry is a technology related to privacy. Click the following post to know how to disable it and to fix the high disk usage problem caused by it.

This article introduces Microsoft Compatibility Telemetry. It also teaches you how to disable Microsoft Compatibility Telemetry and how to solve Microsoft Compatibility Telemetry high disk problem.

7. Operating Habits

In Windows, ordinary users are basically operating under the pure graphical interface, relying on the mouse and keyboard to complete all operations. Therefore, the user is easy to get started. Besides, its user community is mainly ordinary user and game player.

While in Ubuntu, all operations can be done with just the keyboard, because it has both the graphical interface operations (requiring a distribution with a desktop environment) and the full command line operations.

Therefore, getting started is more difficult and requires some learning and guidance. After installing Ubuntu, you should learn how to use Ubuntu in forums. But once skilled, it is extremely efficient. Its user community is mainly programmers who have pursued the UI, researchers, and technical personnel.

Another reason why you may like Ubuntu lies in its updating way. Unlike Windows always popping up annoying updates messages, Ubuntu will not pop up these annoying messages when you launch an application, because Ubuntu fetches the updated versions of the operating system itself and every other installed application as a scheduled task.

On the other hand, Ubuntu has no forced updates like Windows has and no automatic restarts after updates like Windows has.

8. Support

When you have a problem with Windows, you can get critical support and services provided by Microsoft, get help online or from a local PC repair shop.

If you have a problem with Ubuntu, you should go to be seeking out help online. There are dozens of forums, hundreds of chat rooms and even more websites dedicated to helping people learn and understand Linux. You can find Linux support easily.

When it comes to Ubuntu vs Windows, many people would like to mention live CD feature of Ubuntu and think it as Ubuntu’s advantages.

Ubuntu live CD allows you to load a complete Ubuntu version from a CD or a USB drive, rather than loading from a hard disk drive. With this feature, you can take Ubuntu with you everywhere, try out Ubuntu before installing it, and troubleshoot Windows PCs.

However, there is a similar feature in Windows — Windows to go. Windows to go allows you to install Windows into a USB drive and boot it from the USB drive.

Compared with Windows to go, Ubuntu live CD has only one advantage: it is free. Windows to go feature is only built into Windows 8/8.1 Enterprise, as well as Windows 10 Enterprise, Education, and Professional.

Some Tips on Using Ubuntu or Windows

After reading the comparison, you can decide whether to use Ubuntu or Windows. Of course, some of you may want to use both of them. No matter what decision you make, here are some tips for you.

1. WSL or Dual Boot

If you want to use both Ubuntu and Windows, you can try Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) or dual boot.

WSL provides a Linux-compatible kernel interface developed by Microsoft (without Linux code), on which user-mode binaries from Ubuntu can run. It allows you to use Ubuntu on Windows 10 like an app.

This feature is better than emulating Ubuntu with a virtual machine. But it still needs a high-performance computer and it can’t run all Linux software, such as those graphical user interfaces.

If your computer performance is not very good, you can consider dual boot of Ubuntu and Windows.

2. Back up Computer and Manage Disk

If you want to use WSL or set up dual boot, you should back up computer regularly in case of computer crash or other data loss situations. If you want to switch from Windows to Ubuntu, you should also back up your computer.

As for disk clone software, MiniTool Partition Wizard is recommended. You can use its Copy Disk feature.

In addition, MiniTool Partition Wizard can also help you manage partitions better to speed up computer performance, especially when you decide to make a dual boot.

Ubuntu is a popular distribution of Linux operating system. This post will show you how to resize Ubuntu partition under Windows if you dual boot Ubuntu with Windows.

Bottom Line

Do you have any problems with Ubuntu vs. Windows? Do you have problems in backing up computer? If so, please leave a comment below or email us at [email protected] . We will reply to you as soon as possible.

Ubuntu vs Windows FAQ

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Position: Columnist

Author Linda has been working as an editor at MiniTool for 1 year. As a fresh man in IT field, she is curious about computer knowledge and learns it crazily. Maybe due to this point, her articles are simple and easy to understand. Even people who do not understand computer can gain something.

By the way, her special focuses are data recovery, partition management, disk clone, and OS migration.