By the way, it is not just unwillingness to upgrade.
Microsoft trying to push the industry in a certain direction outright banned (or made very annoying) lots of tech after Windows XP.
Example:
Post-winXP is very hard to make decent parallel port stuff.
Post-winXP you can't use dedicated hardware to calculate 3D audio (unless you do it in a funky way, like AMD failed attempt that was by adding a audio chip to the GPU and using the fact that HDMI must output audio...)
Post-winXP several graphics features that favour CRTs were removed too, using CRT in Windows7+ is a pain, many people think CRT suck compared to flat panels because they never saw a CRT being used properly.
And the list goes on...
In my particular case I know of this stuff because I once tried to start a company that make arcade (of the wood cabinet kind) games.
It is completely non-viable with Windows after WinXP...
Microsoft trying to push the industry in a certain direction outright banned (or made very annoying) lots of tech after Windows XP.
Example:
Post-winXP is very hard to make decent parallel port stuff. Post-winXP you can't use dedicated hardware to calculate 3D audio (unless you do it in a funky way, like AMD failed attempt that was by adding a audio chip to the GPU and using the fact that HDMI must output audio...) Post-winXP several graphics features that favour CRTs were removed too, using CRT in Windows7+ is a pain, many people think CRT suck compared to flat panels because they never saw a CRT being used properly.
And the list goes on...
In my particular case I know of this stuff because I once tried to start a company that make arcade (of the wood cabinet kind) games.
It is completely non-viable with Windows after WinXP...