While shares of both older OSes have dropped, Windows 7 64-bit is down 8.49%, while Windows 8.1 64-bit is down 10%. This confirms a trend that we’ve noticed before: Windows 7 users are noticeably more “sticky” than Windows 8.1 owners, or older users on 32-bit operating systems. Thanks to the WayBackMachine, we can see how adoption has shifted over the last 12 months. Windows 8.1 64-bit is in third place, at 8.63%. Windows 10 64-bit holds 47.28% of the Steam market, with Windows 7 64-bit hanging on at 28.99%. Windows 10 adoption has slowed in the general populace, but gamers continue to adopt the OS in fairly large numbers. This could be particularly problematic on laptops, where a lack of support for modern power management baked into newer chips could lead to poor battery life. We’ve previously discussed the long-term difficulty of keeping legacy hardware operational on unsupported platforms - the long and short of it is that while it’ll probably be possible to shoehorn Windows 7 or 8.1 on to newer hardware, it’ll get progressively difficult as chipset drivers change and new hardware capabilities are added to both platforms.

Future platforms, like Kaby Lake, Bristol Ridge, and all future APUs from AMD will only be supported on Windows 10. After a number of fits and starts, Microsoft has agreed to fully support Windows 7 and 8.1 on all Intel Skylake and AMD Carrizo platforms through the planned end date for security fixes for those operating systems (January 20, respectively).

Stickies for windows 7 64 bit