Windows 10 growth slows - but it already has five per cent of the market

Windows 10 growth slows to a 30 per cent increase in a week, but the OS is still faring better than Windows 8

Windows 10 growth has slowed, but its uptake is still faster than its predecessor Windows 8.

Last week, it was revealed that in the two weeks since its release, Windows 10 had been installed on an estimated 27 million machines, or 3.78 of the market, according to StatCounter Global Stats.

In the week since 9 August, Windows 10 had captured 4.95 per cent of the market - resulting in a 30 per cent increase in a week.

However, the growth has slowed from the 177 per cent jump it had received from a 1.36 per cent market share to 3.78 per cent in the previous week. At the beginning of the month, only 0.39 of the market had Windows 10 installed. Despite this, the operating system (OS) uptake has grown faster in two weeks than Windows 8 (not 8.1) managed in six months.

According to Microsoft, the OS was downloaded and installed on more than 14 million PCs within 24 hours of launch, with users taking the plunge despite generalised IT industry advice to wait six months until all the bugs have been fixed.

Indeed, Computing found there was a wireless glitch linked with Cisco's VPN software, and Symantec warned that backwards compatibility meant that many malicious applications could continue to run on the new OS.

There has also been a backlash over claims that Windows 10 will effectively enable the company to scoop up a wide range of user information - and sell the information, tied to unique IDs, to advertisers and other organisations.

But this has not deterred consumers - the vast majority of whom are taking advantage of Microsoft's free download offer to upgrade from Windows 7, 8 and 8.1, rather than paying for a new version on a new PC or laptop. And it hasn't stopped some organisations either, such as King's College London, which is already trialling the OS and plans to complete an upgrade to Windows 10 by next year.