Windows 10 now on over 21% of all desktops, says NetMarketShare

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Published onAugust 1, 2016

published onAugust 1, 2016

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A year after Microsoft introduced its free upgrade offer to Windows 10 for PCs running Windows 7 or Windows 8, the companyfinally put an end to this year-long opportunity last Friday. Microsoft’s significant upgrade push didn’t avoid some controversy during the past year, asmany users complained that its Windows 10 upgrade prompts have been too aggressive and confusing, but there is no denying that the Windows 10 launch has been an overall success for the company.

On June 29, the Redmond giant announced that Windows 10 wasalready running on 350 million devices(including PCs, phones, Xbox One gaming consoles and more), which was 50 million more devices than the previous milestone announced by the company on May 5. As we’re now just one day from therelease of the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, we expect the company to release an update on the number of devices running the latest OS pretty soon.

In the meantime, Windows 10 currently enjoys a 21.13% desktop operating system share according to the latest data fromNetMarketShare. While Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 now represents less than 10% of the PC market (their respective market share currently clock at 2.09% and 7.8%), Windows XP still closes the podium with a 10.34% market share, far from the seven-years-old Windows 7 which currently leads with 47.01%.

Obviously, Windows 10 has still a long way to go before eventually catching up to Windows 7. Microsoft is well aware of this, as the company recently acknowledged that itwon’t met its goal of 1 billion devices running Windows 10 in 2018. However, Windows 7 won’t claim the top step eternally asPC manufacturers have until October 31 to sell off all their stocks of computers running Windows 7 Professional or Windows 8.1. In other words, all new PCs will come with Windows 10 in just three months.

Now that the free upgrade for past operating systems is over, it will be interesting to see how the Windows 10 market share will evolve over the next few months. Let us know in the comments if you think the new operating system will be able to maintain its steady growth in the future.

Radu Tyrsina

Radu Tyrsina has been a Windows fan ever since he got his first PC, a Pentium III (a monster at that time).

For most of the kids of his age, the Internet was an amazing way to play and communicate with others, but he was deeply impressed by the flow of information and how easily you can find anything on the web.

Prior to founding Windows Report, this particular curiosity about digital content enabled him to grow a number of sites that helped hundreds of millions reach faster the answer they’re looking for.

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Radu Tyrsina

With KB5043178 to Release Preview Channel, Microsoft advises Windows 11 users to plug in when the battery is low#

Copilot in Outlook will generate personalized themes for you to customize the app#

Microsoft will raise the price of its 365 Suite to include AI capabilities#

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Windows 10 now on over 21% of all desktops, says NetMarketShare#

With KB5043178 to Release Preview Channel, Microsoft advises Windows 11 users to plug in when the battery is low

Copilot in Outlook will generate personalized themes for you to customize the app

Microsoft will raise the price of its 365 Suite to include AI capabilities

Death Stranding Director’s Cut is now Xbox X|S at a huge discount

Outlook will let users create custom account icons so they can tell their accounts apart easier

Windows 10 now on over 21% of all desktops, says NetMarketShare