Windows 10 overtakes Windows 7, according to StatCounter figures

Windows 10 has finally eked passed Windows 7 some two-and-a-half years after it was released.

That's according to StatCounter, which regularly provides figures and research covering the desktop operating system sector. Its latest figures show that Windows has finally overtaken Windows 7.

Based on these statistics, many believed that Microsoft's latest operating system would beat Windows 7 in November or December of 2017.

That's not the situation now, though. According to StatCounter's latest stats, Windows 10 has grown by 1.09 percentage points to 42.78 per cent.

At the end of 2017, this statistic stood at 41.69 per cent, so the Microsoft can finally say that its newest operating system is its most popular.

Windows 10 only beat out Windows 7 by a tiny margin. Between December and January, the latter only decreasing by 0.3 percentage points to 41.86 per cent.

Windows 10 was launched in July 2015 with a one-year free offer for users of Windows Vista and Windows 7, but the majority of consumer users declined to take-up the offer. Most businesses have stuck with Windows 7 until they are ready to upgrade.

In terms of Microsoft's other desktop systems, Windows 8.1 comes in at 8.7 per cent. Meanwhile, Windows XP still somehow has a 3.36 per cent market share, according to StatCounter.

This news comes as Microsoft ended mainstream support for Windows 8.1 on 9 January, which means it won't be implementing new features for the operating sysem, although security patches will still be rolled out to end users under what Microsoft calls "extended support". This will last for another five years.

The cessation of mainstream support for Windows 8.1 comes after Microsoft withdrew mainstream support for Windows 7 in January 2017. Meanwhile, Microsoft cut extended support for the unloved Windows Vista operating system completely last year.

:story: V3.co.uk