HP really wants people to buy a Windows 7 PC instead of a Windows 8 machine. The PC maker has been emailing customers over the weekend noting that "Windows 7 is back." A new promotion, designed to entice people to select Windows 7 over Windows 8 with $150 of "savings," has launched on HP’s website with a "back by popular demand" slogan. The move is clearly designed to position Windows 7 over Microsoft’s touch-centric Windows 8 operating system.

PC buyers steered away from picking Windows 8

In fact, if you browse to HP’s home section and navigate to desktop PCs then you’ll only be presented with Windows 7 machines by default as no Windows 8 PCs are listed until you start customizing the section using optional filters. The laptop section does include Windows 8 machines, but it also prominently advertises a Windows 7 laptop. Even HP’s all-in-one section promotes the company’s 21-inch Android-powered PC over Windows 8 alternatives.

HP’s "back by popular demand" wording is a clear knock towards Windows 8 which has struggled with perception issues thanks to what some see as a confusing mix of desktop and tablet-style computing. Microsoft has tweaked some parts of the OS with Windows 8.1, but it looks like Windows 9 will bring more significant changes and a move away from the Windows 8 branding. In the mean time, HP is the first PC maker to take advantage of Windows 7 as a selling point over Windows 8, and it follows similar moves from OEMs who chose to promote Windows XP over Windows Vista years ago.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/20/5326844/hp-brings-back-windows-7-by-popular-demand

For me windows 7 will be enough untill windows 9 is out.

Can't wait till the people that says Windows 9 is gonna bring back the start menu realizes that its gonna have Metro UI 2.0... I do like W8 a lot and I do use metro to check me email but if w8 had the start menu, I would have loved it!!! Windows 8/8.1 is a large improvement from Windows 7 in almost every aspect, the only big issues are the lack of a Start Menu and Shadow Copy is gone...

Oh well, Hopefully with w9 they do change their mind but from what the internet seems to say, Its more w8 but much more integrated... Beta is in april, Can't wait

Not surprising at all.

I am sure Dell will follow soon.

I wish Japanese companies would do the same.
I need to exchange my work computer, but I don't want to change to Windows 8.
Right now I'm using Vista, and while it may not be perfect it works for me. I know where all the functions I need are located.
When I'm using Win 8 at the grandparents' place I just have no idea what I'm doing... :/

As we know from COD, what's popular isn't necessarily better.

Windows 8 really is better. People just hate change, and people have been pushing back a ton. If you learn how to use it, it's better.

Windows 7 will be enough until games require more than 16GB and don't support DX11, and that won't be for a VERY long time.

P.S. Windows 8 is a faster version of 7. I hate people who refuse to learn...

If I didn't have a touchscreen laptop- I would hate Windows 8. It's so not made for regular laptops in mind.

W8 is great to work with but I agree that they should have to to UI´s more separate depending on what you want to do.

Ouch.

Meh, DosBox originally was almost impossible to get to work on Windows 8 (Took me awhile to get it up and running orignally) so that definitely soured me to Windows 8. I will say one thing though, it is lightyears ahead of Windows 7 in terms of how well it Virtualizes. Very lightweight.