Although Microsoft has stopped selling Windows 10 licenses on its website due to its plans to encourage migration to Windows 11, it still remains the most widely used Windows in the world. But this does not mean that it has always been like this, because in the case of Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, there was a rejection by users of the Microsoft operating system.
What are the main versions of Windows?
Microsoft released its first operating system in 1985, but obviously Windows 1.0 is hardly used anymore and you’re likely to only find it on collectors’ machines these days. Here we will mention only the Microsoft operating systems that are most used today. The main operating systems developed by the company and present in a significant number of computers in the world are:
- Windows 10
- Windows 11
- Windows 7
- Windows 8.1
- Windows 8
- Windows XP
- Windows Vista
What is the most used Windows in the world?
Released at the end of 2001, Windows XP was already beginning to cease to be the most used Microsoft operating system in the world in 2009, although it was present in 78.45% of the computers in the world. Gradually the operating system gave way to Windows 7, which was released at the end of 2009. As you can see in the graph from Statcounter, a web traffic analysis service founded 23 years ago, Windows 7 surpassed Windows XP between October and November 2011 with approximately 45%.
Windows Vista, released in 2007, had a very short life and already in October 2009, when Windows 7 was released, its presence in the market decreased, having a maximum peak of 25.02%. Almost a year later, in August 2010, Windows 7 was already used more than Windows Vista with 20%. But it wasn’t just this one that failed miserably, there were other Windows that failed to gain public acceptance.
Released in 2012, Windows 8 was the other upcoming operating system from Microsoft that was a dud. Windows 8 did not exceed 10% of presence considering Microsoft’s main operating systems. Its successor, Windows 8.1, released in October 2013, was also not a huge success and peaked at 19.2% in July 2015, at which point Windows 10 was released.
Windows 10 was without a doubt Microsoft’s biggest success following Windows 7 and Windows XP. In January 2016, the operating system already surpassed Windows 8.1 with only 16% of Microsoft’s OS market presence. A year later, in 2018, Windows 10 overtook Windows 7 with nearly 43% presence.
Windows 10’s peak share, considering Microsoft’s main operating systems, was in December 2021, where the OS hit 82.49%. Even in February 2023, Windows 10 was still at 72.18% while Windows 11 was only at 18.66%.
