Windows 10 takes effect in OS market

All major versions of Windows lose market share in July, new figures show

All major versions of Windows lost market share month on month in July, according to figures, suggesting Windows 10 has had a strong impact on the market in the few days since its release.

According to Netmarketshare, in July, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 combined, Windows XP and Windows Vista all saw their share of the market slump slightly compared with June.

The "others" section – which Windows 10 will fall into seeing as it was launched only on Wednesday – grew from accounting for 3.26 per cent of the market to 3.4 per cent in July.

In July, Window 7 took 60.75 per cent of the OS market and Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 took 15.86 per cent, while XP still stayed strong on 11.74 per cent of machines, despite support ending more than a year ago.

On Thursday Microsoft released figures claiming Windows 10 had been downloaded 14 million times in its first 24 hours on the market.

It claims the OS is the best Windows yet and said it was "humbled" by the response so far.