Windows 10 is now world’s second most popular desktop OS after Windows 7

Launched in August 2015, Windows 10 has been a great success story for Microsoft, especially in light of the latest market share news. The company’s newest operating system is now the world’s second most popular on desktop, claiming a global market share of around 12.6%, according to StatCounter’s January 2016 numbers.

The most prevalent OS remains Windows 7 with around 43.7% market share, while Windows 8.1 holds around 10.3%.

These numbers are largely thanks to Microsoft’s aggressive strategy to see all users on legacy OSes upgrade to Windows 10, making the OS free, and prompting users on older OSes to download it as soon as possible through desktop popups. The OS is also free for Windows 7 users or later, which also improves adoption rates.

While these numbers make for good reading for the Redmond-based company, user privacy concerns and annoyances with seemingly forced upgades are prevalent across in forums and comment sections across the web.

Regardless, Windows 10 is also the company’s most quickly adopted OS, with over 200-million users switching to it by December 2015. And in its first month, it claimed an immediate 4.8% market share. Windows 7 could only manage 4% in its first month.

Notably, with all those Windows 7 users yet to make the jump, this number will likely increase within the next few months.

Have a look at Fossbytes for the full story.