Windows 10 is pulling ahead from Windows 7, says StatCounter

StatCounter and NetMarketShare are the two primary OS market data sources. Both those sites paint a somewhat different picture regarding Windows 10’s and Windows 7’s market share for desktops and laptops. NetMarketShare highlights that Windows 7 still has the largest user base, but the latest StatCounter data shows that Windows 10 is pulling further ahead of Windows 7.

StatCounter’s latest data for July 2018 shows that Windows 10 now has a 47.25% market share, which is just about its largest ever figure to date. Windows 7‘s percentage share has dropped from 39.63% to 39.06% on StatCounter’s graph. Thus, Win 10‘s share is now 8.19% higher than 7’s figure. So Windows 10 is now clearly the leading desktop and laptop OS on StatCounter’s graph.

NetMarketShare, however, shows that Windows 10 is still closing the market share gap with 7. The NetMarketShare graph shows that Windows 10’s percentage share has increased from 35.71% to 36.58% in July. Yet, Windows 7 remains ahead with a 41.23% share.

Both NetMarketShare and StatCounter highlight that Windows 10’s market share is certainly increasing as Windows 7’s user base steadily declines. Microsoft will stop supporting Windows 7 from 2020, so 7’s market share figure will probably continue to fall. The software giant has already instructed channel partners to bang the drum about Windows 7 approaching the end of support line. Furthermore, MS Office 2019 will also be exclusively for Windows 10.

While it remains a little unclear about what Windows platform has the highest market share, Windows 10 is still very much on an upward trend. That upward trend will certainly continue with Microsoft discontinuing support for Win 7. More and more Windows 7 users are switching to 10, so it’s only a matter of time before Win 10 overtakes 7 on NetMarketShare’s graph as it has on StatCounter.

I don't understand why Microsoft couldn't just keep XP.

Windows XP was the greatest OS in computing history.

Even if they had to get rid of it, they still could have kept it as a lower-tier OS for people who don't want the bells and whistle.

BTW, Windows 10 is "popular" only because Gates is force-feeding it to you and you have no choice but to upgrade.

I’m NOT a techy by any means, but seems to me as I was recently forced to switch to Firefox due MS not supporting IE anymore on my Windows 7 that perhaps might have something to do with Win. 10 gaining over 7.

I mean maybe, just maybe instead of doing as I did lots of folks just quit 7, and start fresh with 10. I like 7, so I opted for the either google, or firefox route in which I chose firefox, but that’s just me.

Everything you do on Windows 10, all activity is monitored and sent back to the mother ship. Sure you can try to prevent some things from going back but not all. The monitoring is built into the OS Kernel and there is NO way to prevent the automatic updates to the operating system.

The only way to stop the spying is to install the expensive corporate enterprise version.

Germany has mandated that no Windows 10 machines can be used in government business. They are well aware about the executive order that Obama made to Microsoft.

I got Windows 10 over a year ago. For the first 6 months there were upgrades and patches several times a week. At work I was without a working computer for 3 or 4 hours a week.

From Christmas to Memorial day, the interruptions went down to less than 1 hour per week. Now in June, July, August they are again back up to 4 hours or more per week. I walk in in the morning, unlock my laptop and for the next hour I have to work off paper.

When is Windows 10 going to end this Alpha testing phase?

I’m still using Windows 7 on both my PCs ...I turned off updates from MS months ago when they had all the security updates problems ( my HP got the blue screen of death but we managed to get it back in running order ) . I visit the same safe websites every day and so far have not experienced any problems . When either the Dell or HP go not sure what I’m gonna do . Not an Apple fan either .

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