14 DAY TRIAL // The rapidly approaching end of support for Windows 7 is just what Windows 10 needed to become a more widely-adopted operating system, as new data shows Microsoft’s latest OS version is finally improving its market share at a more aggressive pace.
According to numbers provided by NetMarketShare for the month of March, Windows 10 increased its lead to 43.62%, up from no less than 40.30% in February. This means Windows 10 improved its market share by 3.32% in just a single month.
At the same time, Windows 7, which has long been the number one desktop operating system, dropped from 38.41% to 36.52% during the same month. In other words, the gap between Windows 10 and Windows 7 has now reached 7.1%, and it’s very likely to continue increasing in the coming months.
The Windows 7 EOL
This new data can only be good news for Microsoft, especially as the company struggles to convince users to give up on Windows 7 and upgrade to Windows 10.
Launched in 2009, Windows 7 is projected to reach the end of support in January 2020, which means no security patches would be shipped after this date. With this milestone approaching fast, Microsoft is trying to make people aware of the risks of running outdated Windows by sending notifications to their devices, a tactic which the company hopes would also boost the adoption of Windows 10.
Despite Windows 8.1 still getting updates as well, Windows 10 is Microsoft’s recommended choice for users looking to upgrade from Windows 7.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is also giving the finishing touches to a new Windows 10 feature update (version 1903 and possibly called April 2019 Update), which itself could help boost the adoption of the operating system worldwide. Windows 10 version 1903 will introduce several significant improvements, including a new light theme on the desktop, Windows Sandbox for running apps in a secure environment, and further Windows Update refinements.