Windows 10 Hits 600 Million Active Devices

Microsoft May Actually Have a Reliability Strategy

Back in May, more than 500 million active devices were being powered by Windows 10. Today at its annual shareholders meeting, Microsoft CEO announced a new milestone for the company’s operating system: it’s now powering 600 million active devices, reports GeekWire.

Windows 10 growth slowed down ever since the end of the free upgrade offer for Windows 7/8 users. Microsoft’s operating system continued to pick up market share, albeit at a much slower rate, as more and more businesses started moving away from Windows 7, but the majority of users are still running older versions of the OS to this day. Extended support for Windows 7 is set to end in 2020, and by that time Windows 10 should be well over the 1 billion target Microsoft set during the initial launch of the OS.

Going forward, it’s clear that Microsoft won’t have too much trouble getting users to upgrade to newer versions of Windows. The company’s Windows as a Service strategy has performed surprisingly well so far, with more than 20% of all Windows 10 users already using the latest feature update for the OS which only came out in October.

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  • Jules Wombat

    29 November, 2017 - 12:04 pm

    <p>Great so how about that Windows 10 on 2 Billion devices in two (or was it three) years Target ? </p>

    • Rahul Sharma

      29 November, 2017 - 12:06 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#222589"><em>In reply to Jules_Wombat:</em></a></blockquote><p>Nobody said 2 billion devices. The target was always 1 billion in 3 years.</p>

    • MutualCore

      29 November, 2017 - 12:23 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#222589"><em>In reply to Jules_Wombat:</em></a></blockquote><p>Something like 7 billion devices in 3 months.</p>

  • skane2600

    29 November, 2017 - 12:34 pm

    <p>So essentially 600 million PCs if you ignore the outliers.</p>

  • MikeGalos

    29 November, 2017 - 12:35 pm

    <p>So crunching this number and the share at NetMarketShare we find that:</p><p><br></p><p class="ql-indent-1">There are now over 2 Billion personal computers using a desktop operating system</p><p class="ql-indent-1">Over 1.8 Billion of them use Windows</p><p class="ql-indent-1">Windows 10 alone is 4.8 times as popular as all versions of macOS/OS X/Mac OS X combined</p><p class="ql-indent-1">Windows 10 alone is 9.8 times as popular as all Linux desktops combined</p><p class="ql-indent-1">Fragmentation in Windows is minor now with 83.5% of all Windows computers running only two versions</p>

    • skane2600

      29 November, 2017 - 1:47 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#222616"><em>In reply to MikeGalos:</em></a></blockquote><p>Fragmentation isn't just an issue of how many versions people are using, it's also the difference between versions that matter.</p>

      • MikeGalos

        29 November, 2017 - 1:58 pm

        <blockquote><a href="#222632"><em>In reply to skane2600:</em></a></blockquote><p>Yes. But with backward compatibility that Microsoft has maintained that's not the big issue. </p><p><br></p><p>If I only have to target two versions that's not a huge deal even if they're quite different. </p><p>If I have to track the quirks of a dozen versions that is a huge deal even if those versions are fairly (but not totally) close.</p>

        • hrlngrv

          Premium Member
          29 November, 2017 - 2:47 pm

          <p><a href="#222636"><em>In reply to MikeGalos:</em></a></p><blockquote>. . . target two versions . . .</blockquote><p>If developers only targeted Windows 7 SP1, such desktop software could have problems under Windows 10?</p>

          • MikeGalos

            29 November, 2017 - 3:41 pm

            <blockquote><a href="#222672"><em>In reply to hrlngrv:</em></a></blockquote><p>Yes. That's 2 versions to keep track of. </p>

        • skane2600

          29 November, 2017 - 4:22 pm

          <blockquote><a href="#222636"><em>In reply to MikeGalos:</em></a></blockquote><p>If you write a UWP app, you cut out the majority of Windows users as potential customers. That's fragmentation on a major scale</p>

          • MikeGalos

            29 November, 2017 - 9:15 pm

            <blockquote><a href="#222723"><em>In reply to skane2600:</em></a></blockquote><p>Right. If you only target one specific platform then you lose the others. Just like saying "If I skip Windows 10 and, instead, focus on macOS I lose a market 5 times as big as the one I targeted". You pick your targets.</p>

            • skane2600

              30 November, 2017 - 1:03 pm

              <blockquote><a href="#222800"><em>In reply to MikeGalos:</em></a></blockquote><p>In the context of a discussion on fragmentation, the issue of targeting Windows vs targeting MacOs isn't applicable (unless you believe they are really the same OS from the same company).</p><p><br></p><p>In the real world (which I know you have much experience in) you dedicate your limited resources to market that has the greatest potential for profit. Then if you have time and resources left over, you consider the niche markets. </p><p><br></p><p>UWP is a niche market at this time and so far there's little indication that it will become mainstream anytime soon.</p>

    • hrlngrv

      Premium Member
      29 November, 2017 - 2:45 pm

      <p><a href="#222616"><em>In reply to MikeGalos:</em></a></p><p>Curious how you reach the 2 billion figure. From the article above, 600m Windows 10 <strong><em>devices</em></strong> doesn't mean 600m Windows 10 <strong><em>PCs</em></strong>. Figure 550m of those devices are PCs (so 50m phones, Xboxes, IoT running W10), and Netmarketshare shows total Windows 10 desktop share as of end of October 2017 at 29.26%. Combining those gives total number of desktop machines in use of about 1.88 billion.</p><p>As for Windows fragementation, see the thurrott.com article on the latest AdDuplex stats. There are 3 builds (1703, 1709 and 1607) each with more than 10% share of Windows 10 PCs in use. Not sure there's any public info on Windows 7 breakdown between SP1 and original.</p>

      • MikeGalos

        29 November, 2017 - 3:45 pm

        <blockquote><a href="#222671"><em>In reply to hrlngrv:</em></a></blockquote><p>Because I didn't assume 10% weren't PCs – a valid assumption seeing that they're all computers capable of running programs written to use the same APIs. </p><p><br></p><p>600,000,000 / 0.2926 = 2,050,580,998</p><p><br></p><p>Didn't know I was being graded on showing my work.</p><p><br></p><p>But speaking of "neatness counts" grading, how did you get bolding on this platform?</p>

        • hrlngrv

          Premium Member
          29 November, 2017 - 5:02 pm

          <p><a href="#222713"><em>In reply to MikeGalos:</em></a></p><p>Picky: 60m would be 10% of 600m. I admit I pay too much attention to arithmetic precision.</p><p>Re <strong>boldface</strong>, Brad or Tim responded to a forum post of mine mentioning that [Ctrl]+B toggles <strong>boldface</strong>, and [Ctrl]+I toggles <em>italics</em>. Why there's a button for italics but not boldface in the comment composing/editing UI seems to be a trade secret for this site. FWIW, pasting boldface text from HTML sources retains the boldface formatting.</p>

          • MikeGalos

            29 November, 2017 - 9:13 pm

            <blockquote><a href="#222741"><em>In reply to hrlngrv:</em></a></blockquote><p>I'd found out that pasting in bold from HTML sources worked (found that out by accident) but didn't know about Ctrl-B. Thanks.</p><p><br></p><p>Hopefully the site isn't accepting HTML paste without converting it back to text and this is a specific feature just for [B] and [I]. If not, that's got some serious potential security risks.</p>

            • hrlngrv

              Premium Member
              30 November, 2017 - 5:33 pm

              <p><a href="#222799"><em>In reply to MikeGalos:</em></a></p><p>Unfortunately possible to paste lots of HTML silliness, e.g.,</p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">GLITCH</span></p>

              • MikeGalos

                09 December, 2017 - 1:29 pm

                <blockquote><a href="#223228"><em>In reply to hrlngrv:</em></a></blockquote><p>That's potentially a very bad security exposure. Hopefully they'll fix that before somebody exploits it for real.</p>

  • hrlngrv

    Premium Member
    29 November, 2017 - 2:32 pm

    <p>So roughly 100m every 6 months? So W10 should hit 700m by end of April 2018 and 750m by end of July 2018, 3 years after 1507 'RTM'ed. Even with some acceleration, unlikely to hit 900m at the 3 year mark.</p>

  • Thr2017

    Premium Member
    29 November, 2017 - 8:44 pm

    <p>My Intel NUC won't update from 1703 to 1709.</p><p><br></p><p>It wants me to first uninstall Virtual PC 2004. </p><p>I have not installed VPC2004</p><p>I don't think any version of VPC can run on Win10. </p><p>I can't find it in the Install Programs List. It is not a Windows feature. </p><p><br></p><p>Catch 22</p><p><br></p><p>This post updated 4 Jun 2018:</p><p>The problem also occurred when updating from 1709 to 1803.</p><p>After uninstalling Hyper-V, I had to reboot twice before the update would work.</p><p>Rebooting once did not work.</p><p><br></p><p>The Windows Update error message was: </p><p> Some apps need to be uninstalled</p><p> Microsoft Virtual PC 2004</p><p><br></p><p><img src=""><img src=""></p>

    • RamblingGeek

      30 November, 2017 - 6:26 am

      <blockquote><a href="#222796"><em>In reply to Thr2017:</em></a></blockquote><p>Do you have Hyper-V Installed? If so disable, you can leave all configs and VHD's in place, once upgraded renable, rebuild/reimport vm's – not great but it's not too bad either.</p>

      • Thr2017

        Premium Member
        30 November, 2017 - 7:51 pm

        <blockquote><a href="#222867"><em>In reply to RamblingGeek:</em></a></blockquote><blockquote>That fixed it.</blockquote><blockquote><br></blockquote><blockquote>Thanks!</blockquote><p><br></p>

        • RamblingGeek

          18 December, 2017 - 10:25 am

          <blockquote><a href="#223263"><em>In reply to Thr2017:</em></a></blockquote><p>Awesome! :-)</p>

  • SherlockHolmes

    Premium Member
    29 November, 2017 - 11:50 pm

    <p>"The company’s Windows as a Service strategy has performed surprisingly well so far"? Did I miss something here? There wasnt one Upgrade since the launch of Windows 10 that went out without a problem. </p>

    • PeteB

      30 November, 2017 - 5:57 am

      <blockquote><a href="#222841"><em>In reply to SherlockHolmes:</em></a></blockquote><p>Or contained a single useful new feature.</p>

      • hrlngrv

        Premium Member
        30 November, 2017 - 5:21 pm

        <p><a href="#222861"><em>In reply to PeteB:</em></a></p><p>Picky: the 1709 Start menu is different from the 1507 Start menu, IMO 1709's is an improvement. Likewise, Edge has improved (though I still don't use it myself). Finally, WSL for me is a very interesting new feature.</p>

    • JustMe

      Premium Member
      30 November, 2017 - 8:44 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#222841"><em>In reply to SherlockHolmes:</em></a></blockquote><p><br></p><p>I tend to agree. I fail to see how the WAAS strategy has performed 'surprisingly well.' What worked well was their malware-style attepmts to force adoption tactics. If you buy a new Windows PC, it will likely be Windows 10, unless you specifically build it yourself, as older versions of the OS wont work on the newest hardware. The OS continues to get bloated, continues to make it diificult to uninstall unneeded pieces without the use of Powershell, and generally is a pain (IMHO, that is – I know there are those that like it and thats fine. Me, I dont.) What WAAS has done is to make me really look at what I will need for a post-Windows operating environment. While I am not there yet, I will get there.</p>

  • MutualCore

    30 November, 2017 - 1:37 am

    <p>So by the current 'run rate', 1 billion MAU by Nov 2019. Not bad, considering no phones, no AR/VR, and minimal XBox.</p>

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