Users flock to Windows 7 as XP share slowly shrinks

Global desktop share for both Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 shrinks on last month

Windows XP's global market share reached a record low in July, according to new figures, which show migrators appear to have snubbed Windows 8 in favour of predecessor Windows 7.

According to the latest Netmarketshare data for July, the percentage of global desktops running XP shrunk 0.49 points compared with June to 24.82 per cent - an all-time low. Despite support for the 12-year-old operating system ending in April, its share has remained steady since and even rose very slightly from May to June.

Those finally ditching the operating system appear not to have moved over to Microsoft's divisive new operating system Windows 8 - or latest version Windows 8.1 - as the duo's combined market share fell 0.6 points to just 12.48 per cent last month.

Instead, its predecessor Windows 7 enjoyed a surge in popularity as its global desktop share rose 0.67 points to 51.22 per cent - more than four times that of Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 combined.

At Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) in 2013 - just before the launch of Windows 8.1 - then-chief executive Steve Ballmer enthusiastically talked up the OS and insisted it had received a "remarkable" reception, despite many users complaining about the new touch-inspired "metro" interface.

But at this year's WPC last month, the vendor kept comparatively quiet about the OS. Its chief operating Kevin Turner briefly mentioned it in his keynote address and just said improvements were on the way.

"We're already working on the next release of Windows," he said at the July event.

"We are really listening and taking feedback from customers - enterprises and consumers - and Microsoft partners. This will be a great, world-class enterprise OS when it comes out. We will have some game-changing functionality in there for enterprises.

"We're committed to Windows and we're committed to improving it and we're going to continue to work very hard on our progress there."