Windows 10 flatlines, while Windows 7 gains in popularity, according to NetMarketShare figures

Windows 10 may be struggling, but at least Windows XP looks to be going the way of Windows Vista

Despite the hype surrounding the 11 April release of the Creators Update for Microsoft Windows 10, the market share figures for March suggest that PC users are resolutely sticking to Windows 7, rather than upgrade.

According to Net Applications' NetMarketShare service, usage of Windows 7 continues to edge up, and the legacy Microsoft operating system remains twice as popular as Windows 10.

Windows 7, which has already seen off Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, has taken a one percentage point jump to 49.42 per cent (+1.01), putting it at its highest showing since June 2016, when Microsoft's one-year free offer for Windows 10 stopped.

After the high-water-mark established by the launch of Windows 95, when people even queued up at midnight at computer stores to get hold of a copy, Microsoft's stock has slowly declined.

These days, it seems that if the company makes an operating system that no one likes, no one buys it: Windows Vista, which goes end-of-life on 23 April, is now down to just 0.72 per cent (-0.06) in the NetMarketShare figures. But if they make one that's too good, then much of the market actively avoids upgrading.

Of course, some of the tactics deployed by Microsoft, such as discontinuing support for Windows 7 on the latest chips and chipsets will no doubt have a longer term impact, but possibly at the cost of goodwill.

Meanwhile, Microsoft's flagship operating system, Windows 10, is up a smidgen this month to 25.36 (+0.17) which will be fairly disappointing, especially as Windows 8.x has continued to drop (down by 0.29 to 8.23 per cent).

Windows XP has also taken a hit this month, dropping exactly the same amount as Windows 7 gained, to 7.44 (-1.01).

This is a pretty big drop for Windows XP, and it has been less than a year since it dropped below 10 per cent market share. In the whole of 2016 it only lost 1.86 per cent, but in the first quarter of 2017, it has already dropped 1.72, so this really could be they year it finally disappears, to all intents and purposes.

That's assuming that the various bodies still using it, despite its gross insecurity, can finally let go.

In other operating systems, Apple MacOS 12 rules the roost with 3.22 (+0.31) with MacOS 11 at 1.46 (-0.09). MacOS 10 is at 0.93 (-0.07), while other Apple Mac operating systems stand at 0.65 (-0.08).

Finally, Linux increased marginally, and now stands at 0.93 (+0.09).