Internet Explorer 10 delivers a 20 percent increase in real-world site performance versus IE9, Microsoft says.

Microsoft may have taken its sweet time porting Internet Explorer 10 (IE10) over to Windows 7, but it's finally finished and ready for mass consumption. IE10 is available to download worldwide in 95 languages, with Microsoft planning to auto-update Windows 7 customers to its latest browser in the coming weeks, starting today with customers running the IE10 Release Preview.

As Windows 8 rises, Windows 7 loses market share for the first time since its launch.

After a little more than three months, Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system is installed on 2.26 percent of all desktops, according to market share data provided by Net Applications. Windows 8, which was released to the general public on October 26, 2012, has seen a slow but steady rise, grabbing a 1.09 percent share of the desktop market by the end of November and 1.72 percent at the end of December.

Back in September, Microsoft program manager Daniel Moth indicated during a Q&A session on MSDN that DirectX 11.1 was going to be exclusive to Windows 8, shunning Windows 7 users the same way DirectX 11 initially shunned pre-Windows 7 OSes (it was later made available to Vista and Windows Server 2008). If you were hoping Microsoft would have a similar change of heart and bring DX11.1 to Windows 7, you're in luck.

Windows 8 is here, and of course Microsoft wants you and everyone you know to upgrade to its newest operating system. Heck, Microsoft's even taken some of the sting out of upgrading by putting in place several promotions, such as offering Media Center as a free download to Windows 8 Pro users until January 31, 2013. But hey, if you're of the opinion that Microsoft will have to pry the Start menu from your cold, dead installation of Windows 7, then more power to you. Just be aware that you aren't likely to see a second Service Pack, so for all intents and purposes, what you currently see with Windows 7 is what you get.