Microsoft is taking steps to continue forcing users onto Windows 10, with the next version of Office being able to run only on this avatar of its operating system.
Users who want to avoid this will have to pay Redmond for the privilege by taking out a subscription to its cloud offering, Office 365.
The Office 2019 support terms have also been changed with five years of mainstream support and "approximately" two years of extended support.
The package will ship in the second half of 2018.
{loadposition sam08}Figures from StatCounter show that, for the first time, Windows 10 is now deployed on more systems than Windows 7.
Due to Microsoft 365 (Windows and Office combined as a service) there’s a strong argument IT departments and users need to adapt to rolling updates. I smell a new ITIL framework revision..
— Kevin Beaumont (@GossiTheDog) 2 February 2018
While Windows 10 has 42.78% market share, Windows 7 has 41.86%, according to figures for December 2017.
Microsoft has also announced some changes to the lifecycle of Windows 10 versions.