Windows 10 resists its end: usage share climbs while Windows 11's falls

Next month, Microsoft is ending support for home editions of its Windows 10 operating system officially. While users may extend support by one year -- business customers get three -- the number of users who will take up Microsoft's offer is unclear. The extension is more or less free, as you get it as a consumer when you enable the backup functionality during the signup process. There is even a tool for that that lets you do all that with a local account and as little interaction as possible.

Recently, Windows 11, the successor of Windows 10, has been gaining traction. While it led the leaderboard of the most popular operating system on Valve's highly influential Steam gaming platform for some time, it passed Windows 10 at Statcounter's monthly OS popularity ranking in July for the first time.

Being newer and with the advantage that its main competitor is on its last months of support, one could predict the trend easily. Windows 10 usage declines naturally, as users start to migrate to Windows 11, if their devices are compatible, upgrade by bypassing compatibility checks, or buy entirely new PCs.

But in August 2025, stats reversed seemingly, at least according to Statcounter. Windows 11 usage dropped by four points from 53 percent to 49 percent. Windows 10's usage jumped three points to 45 percent. Even the out-of-support Windows 7 operating system jumped by 1.5 points to more than three percent usage, according to Statcounter.

Does this mean that users moved back to Windows 10? Reverted the upgrade or even downgraded their machines, where possible? It seems highly unlikely that this is the main cause for the reversal. Statcounter claims to pull the statistics from billions of visits of users each month. While that sounds much, its stats are not a true reflection of the actual market share of each operating system or browser.

There is also the possibility that the calculation was off in a given month. We know more next month. We could see another reversal, Windows 11 climbing again, Windows 10 and falling.

Windows 10's usage share will decline in the coming months. While part of the userbase will extend support by joining the ESU program, another part will upgrade their machines to Windows 11 or buy new PCs entirely. Yes, some may also switch to Linux.

Now You: which version of Windows do you use, and why?

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Posted Thursday 11 September 2025 at 2:12 am AEST (my time).

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