Windows 7, 8.1 Share Rises As XP Falls Ahead Of Windows 10 Launch

Windows users are preparing for life with Windows 10 by abandoning the aging, unsupported XP for Windows 7 and later versions, according to figures from NetMartketShare.

The six-year old Windows 7 is now on 60.98 percent of all PCs, up from 57.75 percent last month, while Windows 8.1 increased its share by a marginal 0.24 percent to 13.2 percent.

Windows 10 preparations

However, when combined with the 2.9 percent of users still on Windows 8, is more than Windows XP’s 11.98 percent share – a fall from 14.6 percent in June. Official support for Windows XP stopped last June, although some business customers have paid to continue to receive security updates.

The latest figures suggest the vast majority of Windows users will be able to receive Windows 10 for free when it is released at the end of the month, and some might even be upgrading to newer versions of the software in order to be eligible.

Microsoft recently clarified its policy to confirm only those with ‘genuine’ copies of Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 will qualify, even if other users participated in the preview programme. The free update offer is an important component of Microsoft’s strategy to get the operating system running on more than one billion devices.

Windows 10 is already running on 0.16 percent of machines, contributing to an overall Windows market share of 90.86, a figure which includes a 0.01 percent share for Windows 3.1. This is more than Mac OS X’s 7.54 percent share and Linux’s 1.61 percent.

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