From the early looks of Windows 10, it’s a long-overdue concession to the fact that Windows users prefer the way things used to be. A video tour hosted by Windows VP Joe Belfiore is most notable for what Microsoft’s new OS is missing, as well as what’s returned from the pre-Windows 8 days. Rather than carrying on Windows 8’s strange hybrid of animated tiles and Start Menu-less desktop, Windows 10 has an interface more akin to that of Windows 7. Those colorful Metro tiles haven’t disappeared completely—they’ve been moved to the Start Menu—but they’re less in-your-face and mission-critical than they were in Windows 8. Because of that, consumers and businesses are likely to be ecstatic. Neither of them liked Windows 8 much. The numbers don’t lie. According to Net Applications data, about half of the computers in the world right now are running Windows 7. In second place, with about a 24 percent install base, is the never-say-die Windows XP.
