Friday, June 19, 2015

Get up to date

According to Microsoft, Spain has the oldest computer software and hardware in the whole of Western Europe.

At least 25 percent of all computers in the country still run Windows XP which is no longer supported by Microsoft. Most manufacturers of support hardware such as printers and scanners no longer manufacture compatible equipment.

Windows XP was first released on October 25th 2001. It was and is the longest running version of the operating system only being succeeded by Vista on the 30th January 2007. Vista proved to be a lot more troublesome than XP though so many continued to use XP rather than upgrade.

Following Vista came Windows 7 which was stable and proved to be as popular as XP. Then Microsoft brought out Windows 8 which, like Vista, had more bells and whistles than the stripped down 7. Like Vista though, it proved to be unpopular and was replaced by 8.1 which revived  features that IT users wanted.

Users of Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 have been promised a free copy of Windows 10. Users will have noticed an item in their taskbar which allows them to register for this so that once it is available on the 27th July it will be downloaded ready to be installed when they are ready.

Notice though that the free offer leaves out those 25% of Spanish users who are still running XP and those who upgraded to Vista.

Microsoft say that Windows 10 will be the last version of their operating system. Instead of releasing further versions, they will continue to update the one that you have automatically.  




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