Patch Lady – Results of the consumer survey

Once again the caveat that I’m not a professional survey creator, this isn’t a scientific survey, rather I wanted to make sure you, the consumer of Windows, had a voice.

Users of Windows that aren’t in business are getting less and less.  More and more home users use their phone or a tablet and no longer have a windows device at home.  The questions to the consumer survey were similar to the consultant survey.

In question 1 I was asking about overall satisfaction with Windows 7 to Windows 10.  As you can see, again a majority of folks are not satisfied.  Written responses to the survey for question 1 can be read here.

Question 2 I was asking specifically about the satisfaction with Windows 10.  Once again the majority are not satisfied with Windows 10.  Written responses can be read here.

For question 3, the majority of you said that feature updates are not useful to you.  Only about 10% indicated that they were somewhat useful or extremely useful.  The written responses to Question 3 can be read here.

Question 4 asked how often you wanted feature releases and the majority of you want it once every two years or once every year.  Only 12% of you said the current two times a year is fine.  The written responses for Question 4 can be read here.

Question 5 was asking you if Windows 10 was meeting your needs.  As you can see from the results, the majority of you said that it was meeting your needs.  Written responses can be found here.

The final question was an open ended question what you would change about Windows 10.  You can read the responses here.

The full survey results of all of the questions are here.

What do both of these results tell me?  The consumer apps that are put on the professional sku annoy consultants.  The consumers want it more like 7.  More control over updates.  More control over settings.  In Microsoft’s zeal to ensure that we all are kept up to date, they built an operating system that is driving consumers to ipads and androids in its lack of giving consumers control over their devices.  If you want to control patching like Windows 10 does, one HAS to control the ecosystem of applications, hardware, vendors — which is exactly what Microsoft doesn’t do.  And even when they do, in the case of Surface devices, they showcase that we’re still years away from the application ecosystem we need to have total stability in updating.

So we have a long way to go.  And we need changes.  I often joke that I tilt at windmills.  But this isn’t an imaginary enemy.  This is a real need that we need to fix.

Once again I thank you all for taking the time and communicating your thoughts.  You have greatly helped me to understand your views.

My next step will be to write up a more pointed letter to be sent to various leaders and those in charge of Windows 10 to ensure you are heard at Microsoft.