Windows 10: Windows 10 resists its end: usage share climbs while Windows 11's falls

Next month, Microsoft is ending support for home editions of its Windows 10 operating system officially. While users may extend support by one year -- business customers get three -- the number of users who will take up Microsoft's offer is unclear. The extension is more or less free, as you get it as a consumer when you enable the backup functionality during the signup process. There is even a tool for that that lets you do all that with a local account and as little interaction as possible.

Recently, Windows 11, the successor of Windows 10, has been gaining traction. While it led the leaderboard of the most popular operating system on Valve's highly influential Steam gaming platform for some time, it passed Windows 10 at Statcounter's monthly OS popularity ranking in July for the first time.

Being newer and with the advantage that its main competitor is on its last months of support, one could predict the trend easily. Windows 10 usage declines naturally, as users start to migrate to Windows 11, if their devices are compatible, upgrade by bypassing compatibility checks, or buy entirely new PCs.

But in August 2025, stats reversed seemingly, at least according to Statcounter. Windows 11 usage dropped by four points from 53 percent to 49 percent. Windows 10's usage jumped three points to 45 percent. Even the out-of-support Windows 7 operating system jumped by 1.5 points to more than three percent usage, according to Statcounter.

Does this mean that users moved back to Windows 10? Reverted the upgrade or even downgraded their machines, where possible? It seems highly unlikely that this is the main cause for the reversal. Statcounter claims to pull the statistics from billions of visits of users each month. While that sounds much, its stats are not a true reflection of the actual market share of each operating system or browser.

There is also the possibility that the calculation was off in a given month. We know more next month. We could see another reversal, Windows 11 climbing again, Windows 10 and falling.

Windows 10's usage share will decline in the coming months. While part of the userbase will extend support by joining the ESU program, another part will upgrade their machines to Windows 11 or buy new PCs entirely. Yes, some may also switch to Linux.

Now You: which version of Windows do you use, and why?



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Windows 10 Tweaks

Pressing “Windows+Pause Break” (it’s up there next to scroll lock) opens the “System” Window.

Windows 10: In the new version of Windows, Explorer has a section called Quick Access. This includes your frequent folders and recent files. Explorer defaults to opening this page when you open a new window. If you’d rather open the usual This PC, with links to your drives and library folders, follow these steps:

• Open a new Explorer window.
• Click View in the ribbon.
• Click Options.
• Under General, next to “Open File Explorer to:” choose “This PC.”
• Click OK

credit to Lifehacker.

 

New install Windows 10 (issue solved)

It's good that you're not experiencing any issues. Unfortunately many folks are, a quick Google search will show the same info im offering the OP.

Heres a couple examples:

Here

Here

It's basically what I mentioned above, small issues here and there ,but nothing to end your day.. for the most part.

I know it's anecdotal, but for my experience 95% of the time it's perfectly fine. The issues I've run into wouldn't be enough for me to roll back , but they would be enough (had I not installed it yet) ,to avoid it for another couple weeks which is why I'm suggesting it to the OP

Windows 10 Fall Creators Update problems and complaints

• Installation problems with the Fall Creators Update
• Microsoft Edge problems with the Fall Creators Update
• Drivers problems with the Fall Creators Update
• Experience problems with the Fall Creators Update

keep in mind, as of recently, the FCU is installed on 5% of devices roughly.....

 

Disk bloat in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update

Is it my imagination, or does the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update consume an additional 20-30GB of disk space over the previous Creators Update release? Unfortunately, I didn't log my disk usage before the upgrade, but now my C: drive has 56GB of stuff, and I know it wasn't anywhere near that full before. I've run "Disk Cleanup -> Clean up system files" and selected everything on the list, including remove previous version of Windows. I also emptied my Recycle Bin, my Temp folder, \Windows\Temp folder, and \Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download folder. Finally, I ran Wise Disk Cleaner to delete assorted application garbage.

Has anyone else noticed the bloat in Fall Creators Update?