windows10
Comedian Ike Barinholtz uses Windows 10 and Cortana to search for his film “Sisters” at the Microsoft Store on Fifth Avenue in New York Dec. 17, 2015. Windows 10 is now on 10 percent of all computers. Cindy Ord/Getty Images

Microsoft Windows 10 now is running nearly 11 percent of Windows devices, 164 million in all, according to estimates by the analytics firm Net Applications. Microsoft Corp. offered free downloads of the operating system to all Windows 7 and 8.1 users beginning July 29. It set the system’s goal at 1 billion devices, including smartphones and tablets, by mid-2018.

StatCounter, an Irish firm that monitors page views, pegged Windows 10 usage above 11.8 percent in December, up 1.7 points from November, while WinBeta, quoting sources, put the figure at more than 200 million devices.

Computerworld reported Microsoft hasn’t put out any official numbers since early October, when the company said 110 million machines were running its latest OS.

Net Applications, monitoring 160 million users on 40,000 client websites each month, estimated Windows is installed on 91.3 percent of all computer systems (Mac OS X and Linux accounted for the bulk of the rest), meaning Windows 10 now runs 10 percent of all such systems.

The number of machines employing Windows 10 grew 1.1 percentage points from November to December, less than the October-November increase of 1.3 points and the September-October increase of 1.4 points — as well as below the pace set by Windows 7 in the first five months it was available, when it captured an 11.2 percent share of all Windows machines. Windows 10 was installed on 4.8 percent of machines, or 75 million, in August.

Net Applications said Windows XP is currently employed by about 11 percent of computers. even though Microsoft has stop releasing security patches for the operating system, while StatCounter put the comparable figure at 8.4 percent, Myce.com reported. The number of computers running Windows 7 fell by about 5 percentage points in the second half of 2015, but it is still on 55.68 percent of all Windows personal computers. Windows 8 is running on 2.76 percent of devices, while Windows 8.1 is on 10.3 percent, VentureBeat reported. Windows Vista is on 1.62 percent of PCs.

KitGuru noted Windows 10 has been criticized for privacy issues, but lauded for bringing back the desktop lost with Windows 8 and the launch of the Metro user interface.

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