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Windows 10 running on 75 million devices, Microsoft says

Less than a month after rollout, the operating system's adoption is humming along.

Mary Jo Foley
Mary Jo Foley has covered the tech industry for 30 years for a variety of publications, including ZDNet, eWeek and Baseline. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era (John Wiley & Sons, 2008). She also is the cohost of the "Windows Weekly" podcast on the TWiT network.
Mary Jo Foley
2 min read

Windows 10 is settling in. Nate Ralph/CNET

Windows 10's adoption is continuing at a strong pace, according to Microsoft.

Within the first 24 hours of Windows 10's release on July 29, Microsoft said its newest OS was installed on 14 million devices. Two weeks after Windows 10's launch, 12.6 percent of all unique visitors to ZDNet (roughly one out of every eight, including mobile devices) were using Windows 10.

On Wednesday, a little under a month after launch, Microsoft said Windows 10 is now on more than 75 million devices worldwide. The new total comes courtesy of Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Windows and Devices Group, who tweeted the latest numbers.

Mehdi also tweeted that Windows 10 has seen more than six times the number of app downloads per device from the Windows Store than Windows 8 did. He also said more than 90,000 unique PC and tablet models have upgraded to Windows 10 to date.

Microsoft began making Windows 10 available to Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 users as a free upgrade for consumers and some business customers on July 29. Those who don't qualify for the free upgrade and are not covered by a volume license with Software Assurance can opt to buy Windows 10 Home for $119 and/or Windows 10 Pro for $199.

Windows 10 is available in a handful of various editions, the primary four of which are Home, Pro, Enterprise and Education.

Since the July 29 launch, Microsoft has released four cumulative updates for Windows 10 with a variety of fixes, security updates and features. Microsoft is disclosing publicly very little about specific fixes in these updates.

Microsoft officials have said the company's goal is to see Windows 10 installed on 1 billion devices by late summer 2018. That total includes not just the already released Windows 10 for PCs and tablets, but also Windows 10 Mobile for phones, Windows 10 on Internet of Things devices and Windows 10 on Xbox One.

On a related note, Microsoft has published a "Windows 10 and Privacy" page, which includes questions and answers about its privacy policies around Windows 10 and related services. Microsoft's new privacy policy and services agreement have come under fire by many who claim the company's updated terms and settings potentially violate users' privacy rights.

This story originally posted as "Microsoft: More than 75 million devices now running Windows 10" on ZDNet.