Over a decade after its launch and almost 3 months after Microsoft ended all support for the operating system, Windows 7 is still in use by hundreds of millions of users worldwide according to data from Statcounter (via Pocket-lint).
Specifically, the data indicates that over 21% of Windows users are still on Windows 7 and others place the figure even higher with NetApplications showing over 34%. Regardless of which figure is right with over 1 billion monthly active users on Windows 10 that means hundreds of millions of users are still on Windows 7 and we'll give a quick refresher on why that is a terrible idea and how to fix it.
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Why should you upgrade to Windows 10?
Now there are a lot of cool new features to Windows 10 and we'll cover some of them in a moment, but the biggest reason by far to upgrade to Windows 10 is security. We rarely get through a week without bringing you news of some Windows 10 security problem, but the difference there is Microsoft is actively working to fix and patch them as fast as possible.
Given the number of active users we just mentioned hackers are still going to be happy to go after the low-hanging fruit of the completely unsupported Windows 7 and its hundreds of millions of users.
But turning to the more positive side of things, there are a lot of great new features to Windows 10 that make the upgrade worthwhile anyway.
Touching briefly back on security, if your laptop supports it Windows Hello using either facial recognition or fingerprint unlock is a fantastic way to keep your PC safe.
The UI is a fantastic step forward while still being familiar to long-time Windows users with the new Start menu and more touch-friendly UI for those with touchscreen laptops.
Integration with your smartphone via Windows 10 and the Your Phone app is also an incredible step up from the basically siloed experiences between your laptop and smartphone with Windows 7.
Cortana may not be perfect, but the Windows 10 voice assistant is always improving and can handle an amazing number of tasks and the built-in dictation in Windows 10 is quite impressive for those that would rather talk than type.
Truly there is a lot to cover, but that's a small taste of what's available and if you want to dig deeper take a look at our guide on how to use Windows 10 that covers virtually everything you can and should do to make the most of Windows 10.
How to upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7
We covered this process in-depth back in January when Microsoft officially ended support for Windows 7, so if you need to upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7
follow the instructions in that article and in just a couple of hours you should be up and running Windows 10.
