There’s good news for Microsoft to start the month with: Windows 10 has passed Windows 8.1 and XP in market share to become the second most used desktop operating system.
According to fresh statistics published by NetMarketShare, it was during January that the share of Windows 10 jumped by almost 2%, now putting it on 11.85%. This leaves the latest major version of Windows just ahead of Windows 8.1 and XP, which take up respective 10.4% and 11.42% shares.
Still the most used operating system, by a significant margin, is Windows 7 – which was first released in 2009 and continues to run on 52.47% of desktop computers. Nonetheless, Windows 10 is making steady progress – and could very plausibly see a sudden, large spike in uptake by July, as many lingering Windows 7 and 8.1 users rush to take advantage of the free upgrade offer before it finally expires.
