Windows 8.1 overtakes Windows 8 in desktop OS arena

C/NET ^ | 06/03/2014 | Lance Whitney

[SeekAndFind]

Friendlier to PC users than its prececessor, Windows 8.1 continues to eke out a higher share while Windows 8 slips downward.

Net Applications

Windows 8.1 is now more dominant than its predecessor, at least based on all desktop OS traffic seen by Net Applications.

For the month of May, Windows 8.1's share inched up to 6.35 percent from 5.88 percent in April. That gave it just enough of a nudge to steal third place from Windows 8, which earned a 6.3 percent share, down from 6.36 percent the prior month.

Windows 8.1's gradual ascension over its predecessor in the desktop market should hardly come as a surprise. Launched last October as a free update, Windows 8.1 added several features missing in action from the touch-driven Windows 8, notably a Start button, a boot-to-desktop option, and a way to sync the same background for both the Start screen and desktop. An update released this past April added more items to appeal to traditional mouse and keyboard users. Microsoft will try to further placate PC users with the return of a full Start menu, though that may not arrive until sometime next year.

In first place, Windows 7 took home more than half of all desktop OS Web traffic for the first time ever in Net Applications' stats, rising to 50.06 percent from 49.3 percent in April. On the flip side, Windows XP continued to lose share a little bit at a time, slipping to 25.3 percent in May from 26.3 percent the previous month.

The slow but steady rise of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 at the expense of the now unsupported XP is a promising sign, certainly in the eyes of Microsoft. For the past couple of years, the software giant has been urging users to upgrade from XP to a more modern operating system, either Windows 7 or 8. In early April, Microsoft finally ended support for XP, meaning that users will no longer receive bug fixes or security updates, putting them at greater risk to security threats.

Still, Windows XP remains firmly in second place in the desktop OS market. Responsible for a quarter of all desktop OS traffic, the now almost 13-year-old operating system won't be going away completely anytime soon.

[rarestia]

I cut my teeth on DOS 4. I’ve worked in every major Windows revision since 95 and more recently with Linux. I don’t disagree with you. The large majority of changes between Win8 and 8.1 is aesthetic. They were responding to the Metro debacle.

Now you have 8.1 update 1 (8.1.1) that’s required by Microsoft or they won’t support you. It’s a debacle, I don’t disagree, but Windows 8, in general, is not a terrible OS. There’s a slight learning curve, but it’s much faster than 7 in most areas of performance.

[mountainlion]

I never had 7 and things improved when I installed the Windows Shell on 8. Downloading and saving files is a bear and “script quit” is a daily problem. I will try 8.1 but my past experience leaves me very cautious.

[rarestia]

8.1 “fixes” a lot of the Metro failures that enraged the user community. I will say, however, that the “Modern” Start Menu, as MS now calls it, is actually VERY useful once you get it set up properly.

There are some little quirks, things that aren’t where they were in XP/Vista/7, but once you get past them or create PS scripts to do what you want to do, Win8 is actually a pretty badass OS.

The BIGGEST changes to Win8 happened in the kernel. The speed at which this OS operates is incredible. With an SSD and 1 GBps network connection, this OS is a powerhouse. Feed the beast!

[TexasGator]

He said “I went ..”

That means he went, not his computer. Your misreading of his post.

[TexasGator]

“ I am tired of the changes which I see as nothing more than marketing gemmics to sell products.”

You see no benefit of a windows-based system over having to machine-code?

[mountainlion]

You see no benefit of a windows-based system over having to machine-code?

I did not say that. I said I started way back when and that not all bells and whistles are understandable or useful.

[TexasGator]

 I said I started way back when and that not all bells and whistles are understandable or useful.”

But most are.

[mountainlion]

But most are.

True

Just got a popup to upgrade to 8.1. It did not work!

[TexasGator]

Just got a popup to upgrade to 8.1. It did not work”

I got an email from Nirobi. On my way to plck up 10.6 million.

[adorno]

Where did they put the autoexec.bat file?

You will likely find on in an old DOS package, where it belongs. There might still be some around. Or, you can find an equivalent in a Linux distro somewhere.

BTW, how many regular folks go into a .bat file to tinker with it?