Windows 7

Windows 7 is an operating system that was produced by Microsoft and released as part of the Windows NT family of operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, 2009. It was Microsoft's operating system for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs and media center PCs until it was succeeded by Windows 8 and Windows RT in 2012. It is the successor to Windows Vista, released two years prior. Windows 7's server counterpart, Windows Server 2008 R2, was released at the same time. The last supported version of Windows based on this operating system was released on July 1, 2011, entitled Windows Embedded POSReady 7. On January 12, 2016 Microsoft ended support for Internet Explorer versions prior to Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 7. Extended support ended on January 14, 2020, ten years after the release of Windows 7, after which the operating system ceased receiving further support or security updates (with exceptional security updates being made e.g. in 2019, to address potential ransomware threats, like BlueKeep) to most users.

Windows 7 was primarily intended to be an incremental upgrade to Microsoft Windows, addressing Windows Vista's poor critical reception while maintaining hardware and software compatibility. Windows 7 continued improvements on Windows Aero (the user interface introduced in Windows Vista) with the addition of a redesigned taskbar that allows applications to be "pinned" to it, and new window management features. Other new features were added to the operating system, including libraries, the new file sharing system HomeGroup, and support for multitouch input. A new "Action Center" interface was also added to provide an overview of system security and maintenance information, and tweaks were made to the User Account Control system to make it less intrusive. Windows 7 also shipped with updated versions of several stock applications, including Internet Explorer 8, Windows Media Player, and Windows Media Center.

Unlike Vista, Windows 7 was generally praised by critics, who considered the operating system to be a major improvement over its predecessor due to its increased performance, its more intuitive interface (with particular praise devoted to the new taskbar), fewer User Account Control popups, and other improvements made across the platform. Windows 7 was a major success for Microsoft; even prior to its official release, pre-order sales for the operating system on the online retailer Amazon.com had surpassed previous records. In just six months, over 100 million copies had been sold worldwide, increasing to over 630 million licenses by July 2012. As of October 2020, 18.56% of traditional PCs running Windows are running Windows 7 (and thus 14% of all traditional PCs or 7% of all devices across platforms), which still has high (even over 55%) market share in some countries, such as Turkmenistan; e.g. remains popular in China and Venezuela where Windows 10 is now most popular.