We’ve had some more news on the Windows 10 adoption front, and Microsoft will be pleased to see that the operating system is now officially in pole position over in the US.

This is according to desktop and tablet PC figures from analytics firm StatCounter, which are for December 2016 and show that Windows 10 crept up to 26.9% at the close of last year, an increase of 0.55% on the previous month, which was enough to push it past Windows 7 as the latter sank to 26.56%.

It’s a narrow lead, but a lead nonetheless. Of course, these days Windows 10 may not have the free upgrade offer (although there are still unofficial ways of making use of this, mind you), but it benefits from the fact that all new PCs are being sold with Microsoft’s newest OS. (As of October last year, Windows 7/8.1 is no longer supplied to computer manufacturers for pre-installation).

King of the UK

Windows 10 has also been ahead in the UK for some time now going by StatCounter’s figures, having a market share of 31.02% which is well ahead of Windows 7 on 21.49% as of the end of last year.

Globally, though, Windows 7 is still the leading OS on 36.26% compared to 24.49% for Windows 10. Come 2018, however, it’s likely that Microsoft’s current OS will take the lead in the worldwide picture, finally.

Earlier this month, Microsoft was busy criticising Windows 7, saying that the operating system is based on “long-outdated security architectures” no less, and that folks should upgrade to Windows 10 if they really want to stay secure. Just another little ‘push’ from the company which has been jostling users to upgrade ever since the infamous ‘Get Windows 10’ pop-ups first invaded your desktop.

Via: PC Gamer