NetMarketShare: Fifth of all PCs worldwide still run on Windows 7

According to NetMarketShare, Windows 7 is still on more than a fifth of all computers worldwide. Microsoft has not provided free security support for that operating system for nearly a year.

The share of desktop PCs and laptops with Windows 10 was 64.04 percent in the past month. This makes Microsoft’s most recent operating system the most popular, according to data from NetMarketShare. This analysis makes no further distinction between versions of Windows 10. It is particularly striking that Windows 7 is still very much used. That operating system is still running on 20.41 percent of desktops. The share is steadily falling; a year ago, the percentage of Windows 7 was still 29.5.

Since January 14 of this year, Microsoft no longer provides standard security support for Windows 7. However, it is possible to purchase Extended Support. This is mainly done by companies that cannot easily migrate to a new system for business or compatibility reasons. NetMarketShare does not show whether or not companies pay for extended support.

MacOS ranks third among popular operating systems in the analysis, but with 4.88 percent of installations it lags far behind Windows. That is for version 10.15. Older versions, such as 10.14 and 10.13, are listed separately, but have shares of 1.41 and 1.11 percent, respectively. Linux is also listed. Ubuntu is listed separately as a distro that runs on 0.51 percent of computers, and all other Linux distros are further grouped together and have a combined share of 1.65 percent. It is striking that Windows XP is still included in the list. That still runs at 0.87 percent of desktops, while that support already stopped in 2014.

This is the last report that NetMarketShare will release. According to the company, its data is becoming less reliable due to browser makers’ plans to discontinue user agents. Details about the company’s detection method are unknown. NetMarketShare says it uses browser data from ‘one hundred million sessions per month, distributed over thousands of websites’. StatCounter’s alternative service uses tracking code that would be installed on more than two million sites worldwide and would record billions of page views every month. According to StatCounter, Windows 7’s market share has fallen to 16.8 percent.