Microsoft drags users kicking and screaming to newer versions of Windows 10

Windows 10
(Image credit: Future)

The latest Windows 10 statistics are out from AdDuplex, and they show the new October 2020 Update making steady progress – and the May 2019 Update dropping like a stone.

The latter is happening because Microsoft is pushing automatic upgrades for Windows 10 users still using the May 2019 Update, so they don’t have any choice in moving away from this version – mainly because support ends on December 8.

These users are being upgraded in waves, and obviously a good amount have found themselves automatically updated this month, as AdDuplex’s figures for November show that the May 2019 Update has dropped from a 22% share to 10.2%. In other words, user numbers have more than halved in a short space of time.

The most recent October 2020 Update has moved forward in November, gaining a decent chunk of users to find itself on 8.8% (it was on a lowly 1.7% last month, but was only launched later in October).

Migration aplenty

That gain for the October 2020 Update will doubtless have consisted of some folks pushed from the May 2019 Update, and the same is true for the May 2020 Update, although the latter dropped a percentage point to 37.6% (so more folks must have left this upgrade for the most recent October 2020 Update, than came from the May 2019 Update).

Those with compatibility blocks on those two most recent updates would have been moved from the May 2019 Update to the November 2019 Update, and therefore this version gained as well, moving up to 36.4% (from 32.4%).

AdDuplex derives its figures from some 100,000 Windows 10 PCs, via Microsoft Store apps which carry its adverts.

Via Neowin

Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).