Windows 7 back by popular demand

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Filed under: Microsoft Tech HP. Windows 7 was still used by Compounding consumers' apparent aversion to immediately upgrade to the latest Windows OS, Microsoft is expected to release a major Windows overhaul next year.

The software giant is said to leaning toward naming the new release Windows 9 to distance and differentiate it from Windows 8. Be respectful, keep it civil and stay on topic. We delete comments that violate our policy , which we encourage you to read.

Against a backdrop where consumers, who buy about half of all PCs, have been equivocal about Windows 8's tiled interface since its launch in October , HP has begun trying to boost sales by offering people what they are more familiar with: the desktop interface of Windows 7.

In the email flyers, it offers a handful of both desktop and laptop PCs which run the older OS, which was first released in October and which Microsoft's claimed was its most successful version of Windows - with only Windows XP, released in autumn , competing with it.

About half of Windows licences are sold to businesses, which can buy the right to "downgrade" them to an earlier version such as Windows 7. Roughly half of Microsoft's Windows revenue comes from such sales. It doesn't break out what proportion of its licences are downgraded in its financial results - where it will report its latest quarterly figures on Thursday.