Not to mention that also afterwards there were Windows 7 patches that kept one CPU core 100% busy for days!
Windows 7 is the new holdout, and people aren't eager to swallow 10.
https://www.engadget.com/2017/05/15/pirated-windows-china-ru...
Except when you are "updated" from a full, paid version to a spyware/adware-ridden version.
Seriously: I think Windows 10 is great, technically and usability wise.
But MS need to learn that they can't have it both ways:
Paid xor ads. (I can think of two exception: inside the store app and inside settings for onedrive.)
There is no good reason to excuse Microsoft for maliciously disguising updates as security patches in order to manipulate the non tech-savvy into switching to their new unprecedentedly invasive OS. Especially when, as you said, the UI is worse.
The entire UX of Windows 10 is worse, every time I have to use it for something I get physical anxiety from claustrophobia.
I really don't like that I have to install untrusted 3rd party software on my computer in order to prevent my operating system from automatically ruining my user experience and spying on me.
Then, not having learned their lesson, they pulled similar crap with the Windows 7->Windows 8 transition which pissed people off so badly that they refused to go to Windows 10 and are currently suing Microsoft for attempting to shove it down people's throats.
Insecure old version of Windows are Microsoft's own damn fault.
Moving them out of the kernel is a great engineering decision, infinite backwards compatibility isn't feasible. Sometimes breaking changes are needed.
The idea of non-privileged drivers is neat, but in general is not worthwhile because the driver has to somehow access the hardware, which for significant amount of device/platform combinations leads to access to arbitrary memory locations.
Edit: perfect example are GPU drivers, which are for a long time typically composed of small priviledged kernel driver and all the complex logic in userspace. In many cases the interface between these two components could be abused to get code execution in kernel context (in 2k/xp times there was even RCE in kernel context triggered by displaying properly crafted image in IE)
This means you aren't preventing drivers from having full access. You just need to prevent more unintended side-effects.
Suddenly, people can run that business critical, single, old driver as unsafe while running the other drivers safely.
Alas, some manager at Microsoft decided it was more important to get his numbers up this quarter so he could get his bonus. In so doing, Microsoft orphaned a bunch of people on XP just like they orphaned a bunch of people on VB6.
Microsoft made its own bed; now it has to lie in it.