StatCounter has released its monthly OS share report, confirming that Windows 10 reigns supreme on the desktop. Windows 11 is also climbing, but much less, and still not reaching the level expected by Microsoft.

The operating system market rarely sees sudden jumps or significant changes. However, February 2023 was expected to be an exception, and it was, reflecting the end of extended support for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.

Windows 10 reigns supreme on the computer desktop. Among global Windows in February they increased by 4.39 percentage points to 73.2%. This is a massive increase that usually only occurs in the above situations where other versions end of life. In fact, Windows 7 is down almost the same amount, 4.16 points to 5.39%.

It’s clear that Windows 10 followed up on previous users of Windows 7. And free; because Microsoft’s servers continue to certify all machines that come to them from previous systems, even though the official free upgrade program ended years ago.

As for Windows 8.1, it also drops, covering just over 1%. Windows 8 remains half (0.52%). Like Windows XP, which is still at war, we assume for old enterprise PCs with 0.46%. It is clear that these are three residual versions.

Special mention for Windows 11. Its market share is still not declining, increasing by less than a point to 19.13% among all Windows in the last month. Very little considering that all new PCs that hit the market do so and that Microsoft has stopped selling retail licenses for Windows 10.

Microsoft continues to use all kinds of tricks to move users away from Windows 10. Known “dark patterns” that try to force an upgrade even if the user is comfortable with Windows 10. To be fair, it should also be said that Microsoft has not stopped developing/improving Windows 11 since its launch, as we could see yesterday with the release of the “Moments 2” version.

Multiple desktop operating systems

All Windows together have 74.14% of the total desktop market share. Alternatives are known and the main one comes from Apple s Mac Operating System to which StatCounter attributes a 15.33% share. You already know that Apple does not license its systems to third parties, so the quota is limited to Mac computers.

Next is linux. A development that still does not occupy the quota that its quality, freedom and reward deserve, remaining just under 3%. We would have to add another 2.35% of Google’s Chrome OS to the data.

And the world total of operating systems?

All of the above relates to data from computers, but in today’s mobile world, there are other developments worth mentioning, according to StatCounter:

In fact, there is a big name here Android with 42.99% among world facilities. Taken together, Windows has “only” 29.22%, limited by not being present on smartphones, tablets or wearables. Apple’s iOS reaches 17.21%, which confirms the enormous level of iPhone sales.