Windows 10 overtakes XP and 8.1 to become second most-used OS in the world, but still way behind 7

[midian182]

When Windows 10 was released on July 29 last year, it was hailed as the best operating system to come from Microsoft in a long time. Now, six months after its release, the latest iteration of Windows has finally passed 10 percent market share, moving it ahead of both Windows XP and Windows 8.1 to become the second most-used operating system in the world.

The figures, from NetMarketShare, show that Windows 10 now has a global market share of 11.85 percent, up from 9.96 percent in December. This put it ahead of fourth place Windows 8.1, which stayed at 10.4 percent, and third-position Windows XP, which actually saw its share increase by half a point in the last month to 11.4 percent.

Microsoft revealed last month that Windows 10 is the fastest growing version of its operating system ever. It was installed on 75 million PCs in its first four weeks, reaching 110 million after just 10 weeks. In December, Windows 10 was found on over 200 million active devices, moving ever closer to Microsoft’s grand plan of having the OS installed on 1 billion devices “in two or three years.”

Those who are continuing to use Windows 7 and 8.1 still have six months left to upgrade to Windows 10. And with Microsoft’s recent announcement that all new processors will only be compatible with its latest OS, it looks as if the operating system’s popularity will continue to increase.

Despite the positive figures, the latest version of Windows still has some way to go before it knocks Windows 7 off the number one position. The seven-year-old OS is still used on 52.47 percent of the world’s computers, but it’s market share is declining fast – down from 55.65 percent in December. Just before Windows 10 was released, Windows 7 held a massive 60 percent market share.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/63666-windows-10-overtakes-xp-81-become-second-most.html

 

[OortCloud]

No pie for Linus? Poor Linus...

 

[Guest17]

MS will find the Win7 crowd harder to convert to 10, despite its latest strongarm tactics. The NT ecosystem will remain the only OS that matters for many years to come. Indeed, for some the future of computing will be legacy computing, a future that is just beginning now.

 

[veLa]

Windows 7 in the new XP. It will never die.

 

[JamesandBennie]

So if Windows 10 is on tablets and mobile devices, why isn't iOS listed in the graph, otherwise don't include Mac operating system at all.

 

[cliffordcooley]

So if Windows 10 is on tablets and mobile devices, why isn't iOS listed in the graph, otherwise don't include Mac operating system at all.

That's a good point.

 

[Brock Kane]

Not dropping to my knees for Microsoft yet. Win 7 just works! Gaming runs great. System boots quick. All drivers compatible. All peripherals and USB devices work well. Still a nice looking interface.

So far DX12 would be my ONE AND ONLY reason to switch to Win 10. Right now, not a lot of titles utilizing DX12. My DX11 games are just awesome right now.

Microsoft wants everyone to bow to them and their practices. Don't trust them any more! But, when my hand is forced, guess I'll follow the rest of the Lemmings and sell my soul to the devil they are!

I'll give you my Win 7, when you pry it from my cold dead hands!

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Windows 7 in the new XP. It will never die.

That's a pretty bold statement to make. Of course it will eventually die.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

I wouldn't go so far as to say it's the best OS M$ has released thus far but once you've cut short all the calls it makes home and ditched all the rubbishing bloatware M$ assumes you should want and have, it's not too bad at all.

 

[Adhmuz]

Go Micorsoft, you beat out your 10+ year old OS and your 2nd newest OS at the same time, I don't know about you but those are some impressive numbers to write home about... And this is given the fact that the free upgrade is accepted by many who don't know any better adding to the numbers for 10 dramatically. I would like to know how many retail copies of Windows 10 have been purchased and activated, something Microsoft could tell us, but it would be far less impressive, not that these current figures are impressive to begin with.

 

[Misagt]

Plain and simple I'm done with Microsoft. I love Win 7 but once it dies I'm moving to linux. Thankfully steam is making this a viable option for gaming.

 

[bazz2004]

Microsoft have made impressive progress and my W7 and W8.1 systems were updated ages ago. The big failure though has been with Windows 10 mobile for phones. I'm still not tempted to get a smartphone. With all the talent at their disposal I expected Microsoft to set to work and thrash out a high quality range of apps to package with their Windows 10 phones. Microsoft in the old days used to publish some excellent software. If third party developers don't provide the goods and they have shown little interest so far Microsoft should prime the pump. It's looking as if they will throw in the towel after wasting mega bucks.

 

[poohbear]

Not dropping to my knees for Microsoft yet. Win 7 just works! Gaming runs great. System boots quick. All drivers compatible. All peripherals and USB devices work well. Still a nice looking interface.

So far DX12 would be my ONE AND ONLY reason to switch to Win 10. Right now, not a lot of titles utilizing DX12. My DX11 games are just awesome right now.

Microsoft wants everyone to bow to them and their practices. Don't trust them any more! But, when my hand is forced, guess I'll follow the rest of the Lemmings and sell my soul to the devil they are!

I'll give you my Win 7, when you pry it from my cold dead hands!

did you say that when you switched to Win 7 from Win XP?

 

[Raoul Duke]

Z-170 chipset board, using M.2 NVMe boot SSD, Win 10 gave me the least hassles on OS install although 8.1 worked as well - what a set of options... If you want Win 7 NVMe driver install must be during installation

 

[DAOWAce]

Well, now it's going to be forcibly installed with automatic updates, so market shill will go up!

Share*, market share.

It's free and still just barely beats out Win8 and XP. That's sad.

 

[Phr3d]

2% switch away from win7 compares to what % switch to win7 from XP in same time frame?

I went to da sebben after it was finished, ~18 months after release, and have never been sorry (after 'adjusting' to the arbitrary moving everything around to different locations so the early-adopter kiddies can feel extra smart for a few months). I've had few problems and all huge hardware improvements have been added with ease. Adjusting to arbitrarily moving everything around to Two places to impress the kiddies ain't real tempting, gotta be empowering to be able to do that sh*t -for no user benefit- simply because you Can.

Gotta wonder what no-sebben-support will do to Skylake sales, humbly offer that Intel might have an opinion to offer if their latest creation falls on dead sales from DIY computer builders -perhaps- not being anxious to switch to newer,better,updates-ready-or-not model. As mentioned, if I gotta pre-load NVM, it's a once-and-forget that we all got used to in the XP days, so that will be the last upgrade I get.

Bet it breaks the better-half's heart to hear that I can't upgrade hardware anymore.. (or win-update, as win7 updates are Bound to lower performance from 1 Jan 16 forward in my paranoid view - having suffered through that with XP, at least I'm a teensey bit justified in my paranoia, I.e., XP-SP3 with no updates from after win7 release was still faster than a scalded cat - I'm sure it was coincidental, so academic at this point).

 

[Brock Kane]

did you say that when you switched to Win 7 from Win XP?

No, I did switch to Vista first. If you remember how bad THAT Operating System was??? So, you can understand my frustration and lost love of Microsoft!