Windows XP is still running on a tenth of all desktops

A tenth of all desktops are still running the ageing, unsupported Windows XP despite efforts by Microsoft to make users upgrade to a more modern operating system – in particular Windows 10.

Figures from Netmarketshare show 10.9 percent of the desktop OS market is controlled by Windows XP, first released in 2001, making it the third most popular edition of Windows.

Microsoft’s efforts seem not to have been in vain however. Windows 10 continued to gain users, taking 14.15 percent of the market although it still trails overall leader Windows 7, which has 51.89 percent.

Windows 10 finally overtook Windows XP in popularity back in February. So far the latest version has been downloaded more than 270 million times as the company makes progress in achieving its goal of reaching one billion systems.

Recent estimates from Gartner predict that 50 percent of organisations will have started Windows 10 deployments by January 2017, and a TechWeekEurope poll showed that 75 percent of readers plan to download Windows 10, which has been greeted by a strong critical response.

Microsoft officially ended support for Windows XP in April 2014, putting an end to its monthly security patches and bug fixes, however a number of major organisations, including the US Navy, which still has 100,000 workstations running Windows XP, have signed a deal with Microsoft to keep the software supported.

And a freedom of information (FoI) request in October that year found that all NHS trusts were still using XP in some form, with another separate FoI request also revealing that London’s Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) still has more than 35,000 systems running Windows XP.

However some organisations have moved on, including the British government itself, which last May opted not to renew the extended support agreement for Windows XP.