[SeekAndFind]

NetMarketShare's OS market share graph for October 2014.

[Secret Agent Man]

the only reasons are because that’s what ships already installed on devices now. also because many large business licensing agreements require mandatory upgrades to ms’s latest o/s within a certain time period.

[bigbob]

Between forcing OEMs to bundle it and scaring XP users into upgrading, it isn’t exactly hard to figure why this is.

[drypowder]

Never mind their benevolence, it's all theatrics. With a bit of searching one can find that Bill and Malinda Gates are anti-gun, anti-freedom and pro abortion and pro Agenda 21. That equates to one thing, if you aren't one of the .01%ers then you are expendable just so those of that magnitude of wealth and their families can some day live in a less crowded world made up of only servants and oligarchs. I'm on a personal boycott of anything MS. I know that's not much but it's all I can do.

[KarlInOhio]

At the same time, Windows XP usage fell off a cliff, from 23.9 to 17.2 percent, down 6.7 percent.

What's the half life of a PC with Windows XP installed since it hasn't been generally sold for 6 years. Also, have virus writers and hackers been paying attention to see what was patched in Windows 7 and 8 recently and then tested XP systems to see if they had the same vulnerabilities? That could kill XP systems still on the internet pretty quickly.