Market shares of Windows 7 and Windows 10 are growing towards each other. Windows 10 is on the rise and only a handful of Windows 7 users appears to slowly move to Microsoft's latest operating system every month. Last month, the difference in market share between the two was 4.65%, with Windows 7 in the lead.
Despite all marketing efforts from Microsoft, and the free upgrade offer, the majority of Windows users is still on Windows 7. Research company NetMarketShare reports in its monthly overview that Windows 7 is installed on 41.23% of all computers, while Windows 10 is now running on 36.58% of all desktops and laptops.
In a month, Windows 7 only lost 0.51% of its market share while Windows 10 gained only 0.87%. It appears current Windows 7 users don't see much reason to switch, while Windows 10 only gained a handful of new users. It's very well possible that the new Windows 10 users are the ones who bought a new desktop or laptop computer that came with the operating system preinstalled.
With the current numbers it does mean that somewhere this, or next year, Windows 10 will overtake Windows 7. Growth of Windows 10 can especially be expected in times when there is a peak in the sale of new computers like the 'back to school' period or the Holidays at the end of the year. Obviously the end of the extended support period of Windows 7, on January 14th 2020, will likely be the most beneficial event for Windows 10 to happen. After that date, Windows 7 will no longer receive security updates and for most users the upgrade to Windows 10 will be the easiest way to secure their system again.
No matter what, Windows is by far the most dominant operating system on desktops and laptops, with a market share of 88.43%. Apple's macOS has a market share of 9.11% and Linux is with 1.92% still an exotic operating system on desktop and laptop computers.
