Microsoft: Windows 10 has an install base of 16% (November 2015)
It is difficult to find out how well -- or not -- Microsoft's new operating system Windows 10 is doing, and whether it is likely that Microsoft will hit the 1 billion or more devices running the operating system in two to three years after launch.
The company has been tight lipped about the progress, and revealed numbers only sporadically in the past.
Back in August, Microsoft reported that the operating system was installed on 75 million devices, and in December 2015, it reported an install base of more than 200 million.
Those official figures paint a clear picture of the growth, but they are not enough to determine how well Windows 10 is doing.
That's where third-party sites came into play in the past. The main issue with those services is that they are not accurate as they analyze web traffic to determine operating system usage stats.
That explains the big difference in usage stats. The latest Steam hardware survey stats indicate that more than 32% of all Steam users are using devices with Windows 10, while services such as NetMarketShare or Statcounter see Windows 10 at 11.85% or 12.45% respectively.
Microsoft's Windows Trend website sheds some light on those statistics. The first chart, highlighting the operating system install base between September 2014 and November 2015 highlights the rise and fall of Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10.
According to the information posted there, Windows 10 went from 1% in June 2015 to 16% in November 2015.
| Windows 7 | Windows 8 | Windows 8.1 | Windows 10 | |
| 11/1/2014 | 74 | 7 | 18 | |
| 12/1/2014 | 73 | 7 | 20 | |
| 1/1/2015 | 72 | 6 | 22 | |
| 2/1/2015 | 71 | 5 | 23 | |
| 3/1/2015 | 71 | 5 | 24 | |
| 4/1/2015 | 70 | 5 | 25 | |
| 5/1/2015 | 69 | 5 | 26 | |
| 6/1/2015 | 68 | 4 | 27 | 1 |
| 7/1/2015 | 67 | 4 | 26 | 4 |
| 8/1/2015 | 63 | 4 | 24 | 9 |
| 9/1/2015 | 64 | 3 | 21 | 11 |
| 10/1/2015 | 65 | 3 | 17 | 14 |
| 11/1/2015 | 63 | 3 | 18 | 16 |
Windows 10 was released on July 29, 2015 officially.
A switch from trends for all users to gamers shows that gamers adopt Windows 10 more rapidly than all users. The latest figure as of November 2015 is 20% for Windows 10 which is 4% more than the average OS install base.
The OS install base is larger than the reported usage share of third-party services such as NetMarketShare which reported Windows 10 on 9% in November 2015.
The Windows Trends website reveals other interesting information. Here is a short list, all stats as of November 2015.
- 22% of all devices have less than 4 Gigabyte of RAM, 56% 4 Gigabyte, and 21% more than 4 Gigabyte of RAM.
- 3% of all devices have less than 64 Gigabyte of storage, 7% 128 Gigabyte, and 13% 256 Gigabyte.
- 3% of all devices support a resolution of less than 720p, 74% 720p, and 23% higher resolutions.
- The most popular Windows Store categories based on downloads are games (42%), entertainment (9%), and photo & video (8%).
- Games lead the app and IAP (in app purchase) sales with 84% of all sales.
- The ratio of revenue from app sales and IAP sales is 20/80 meaning that companies earn most revenue from in-app purchases.
- Windows 10 accounts for 59% of all app and IAP downloads.
Microsoft computes the statistics from Windows devices that are configured to submit telemetry data to the company while app purchase and download data is taken directly from Windows Store.
It is a bit unfortunate that Microsoft does not provide statistics for December or January yet. The OS install base is higher than that of third-party services but it is likely that Microsoft's statistics are more accurate than those of these services.
Now You: What's your take on the data?
What mental age of reader are you targeting with the first sentence? 10?
Why not write an article on how to *avoid* upgrading from W10 to W11. Analogous to those like me who avoided upgrading from 7 to 10 for as long as possible.
If your paymaster Microsoft permits it, of course.
5. Rufus
6. Ventoy
PS. I hate reading these “SEO optimized” articles.
I used Rufus to create an installer for a 6th gen intel i5 that had MBR. It upgraded using Setup. No issues except for Win 11 always prompting me to replace my local account. Still using Win 10 Pro on all my other PCs to avoid the bullying.
bit pointless to upgrade for the sake of upgrading as you never know when you’ll get locked out because ms might suddenly not provide updates to unsupported systems.
ps…. time travelling?
written. Jan 15, 2023
Updated • Jan 13, 2023
This happens when you schedule a post in WordPress and update it before setting the publication date.
Anyone willing to downgrade to this awful OS must like inflicting themselves with harm.
I have become convinced now that anybody who has no qualms with using Windows 11/10 must fit into one of the following brackets:
1) Too young to remember a time before W10 and W11 (doesn’t know better)
2) Wants to play the latest games on their PC above anything else (or deeply needs some software which already dropped W7 support)
3) Doesn’t know too much about how computers work, worried that they’d be absolutely lost and in trouble without the “”latest security””
4) Microsoft apologist that tries to justify that the latest “features” and “changes” are actually a good thing, that improve Windows
5) Uses their computer to do a bare minimum of like 3 different things, browse web, check emails, etc, so really doesn’t fuss
Obviously that doesn’t cover everyone, there’s also the category that:
6) Actually liked W7 more than 10, and held out as long as possible before switching, begrudgingly uses 10 now
Have I missed any group off this list?
You have missed in this group just about any professional user that uses business software like CAD programs or ERP Programs which are 99% of all professional users from this list.
Linux doesn’t help anyone who is not a linux kid and apple is just a fancy facebook machine.
Microsoft has removed KB5029351 update
only from windows update though
KB5029351 is still available from the ms update catalog site
1. This update is labaled as PREVIEW if it causes issues to unintelligent people, then they shouldn’t have allowed Preview updates ot install.
2. I have installed it in a 11 years old computer, and no problems at all.
3. Making a big drama over a bluescreen for an updated labeled as preview is ridiculous.
This is probably another BS internet drama where people ran programs and scripts that modified the registry until they broke Windows, just for removing stuff that they weren’t even using just for the sake of it.
Maybe people should stop playing geeks and actually either use Windows 10 or Windows 11, but don’t try to modify things just for the sake of it.
Sometimes removing or stopping things (like defender is a perfect example) only need intelligence, not scripts or 3rd party programs that might mess with windows.
Windows 11 was a pointless release, it was just created because some of the Windows team wanted to boost sales with some sort of new and improved Windows 10. Instead, Microsoft cannot support one version well let alone two.
Windows 11 is the worst ugly shame by Microsoft ever. They should release with every new W11 version a complete free version of Starallback inside just to make this sh** OS functionally again.
motherboard maker MSI has recently released a statement regarding the “unsupported processor” blue screen error for their boards using Intel 600/700 series chipsets & to avoid the KB5029351 Win11 update:
https://www.msi.com/news/detail/MSI-On–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–Error-Message-of-Windows-11-Update-KB5029351-Preview-142215
check out the following recent articles:
Neowin – Microsoft puts little blame on its Windows update after UNSUPPORTED PROCESSOR BSOD bug:
https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-puts-little-blame-on-its-windows-update-after-unsupported-processor-bsod-bug/
BleepingComputer – Microsoft blames ‘unsupported processor’ blue screens on OEM vendors:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-blames-unsupported-processor-blue-screens-on-oem-vendors/
While there may be changes or updates to the Windows 10 Store for Business and Education in the future, it is premature to conclude that it will be discontinued based solely on rumors.
My advice, I left win 15 years ago. Now I’m a happy linux user (linuxmint) but there is Centos, Fedora, Ubuntu depending on your needs.
motherboard maker MSI has recently released new BIOS/firmware updates for their Intel 600 & 700 series motherboards to fix the “UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR” problem (Sept. 6):
https://www.msi.com/news/detail/Updated-BIOS-fixes-Error-Message–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–caused-BSOD-on-MSI-s-Intel-700-and-600-Series-Motherboards-142277
I try to disable the Diagnostics Tracking Service (Connected Devices Platform User Services) but it wont let me disable it, any help will be greatly appreciated.
Tank you for your help