Stats show Windows 10 is close to becoming world’s top PC OS

Nov 1, 2018 05:32 GMT  ·  By

New market share data shows that Windows 10 is incredibly close to overtaking Windows 7 and become the world’s number one desktop operating system.

Updated numbers for the month of October were published only a few minutes ago by NetMarketShow, and they confirm Windows 10 adoption is on the rise, while Windows 7’s share declines every month.

Right now, Windows 7 continues to be the number one desktop platform with 39.35%, down from 40.88% in the previous month, but this drop has brought Windows 10 much closer.

Microsoft’s latest operating system now has a share of 38.28%, an increase from 37.44% in September, and if this trend is maintained next month, there’s a good chance a switch of places finally happens.

Windows 7 end-of-support date

Windows 7’s current market share is impressive, to say the least, especially given that it survived Microsoft’s aggressive push for Windows 10 when the operating system was offered as a free upgrade.

However, the closer we get to the January 2020 end-of-support date for Windows 7, the more people move to Windows 10, and this has a significant impact on its existing market share.

Enterprises have also started preparing the migration to Windows 10, so the decline of Windows 7 is likely to accelerate in the coming months, whereas its successor should go up at a faster pace.

On the other hand, there’s no doubt that not everyone would give up on Windows 7 before Microsoft pulls the plug on it, thus creating additional security risks on these systems. Without security updates, machines running Windows 7 would be left unprotected against exploits aimed at vulnerabilities in the operating system.

This is exactly what happened with Windows XP as well, as the 2001 Windows version was still running on some 25 percent of PCs when Microsoft retired it in April 2014.