That Was Quick: Windows 10 Market Share Tops Vista, OS X

Well, that didn't take long. Microsoft's Windows 10 has only been available for a little over a month, but it's already the fourth-most-popular desktop operating system in the world, according to new data from Net Applications.

The company, which analyzes operating systems worldwide, says that Windows 10 has nabbed 5.2 percent of the desktop OS space. Windows 7 is still the market leader at 57.7 percent share, followed by Windows XP and Windows 8.1, which nabbed 12.1 and 11.4 percent of the market, respectively.

By catapulting to fourth place in the desktop operating system market, though, Windows 10 is now running on more computers than Apple's OS X 10.10 (Yosemite), as well as Windows 8 and Windows Vista.

The news comes after Microsoft said that 75 million devices are now running Windows 10, and will likely be well-received in Redmond, where Microsoft and CEO Satya Nadella are in serious need of a successful Windows 10. Since its launch in 2012, Windows 8 was widely panned by users and analysts alike, who criticized its design and said it was a significant step backwards for Microsoft. Few adopted the platform, even after Microsoft launched Windows 8.1 to address some of the issues users had with the original Windows 8.

In Windows 10, Microsoft has fully committed to fixing its mistakes with the previous operating system, bringing back the popular Start Menu (video below) and making the design a bit more familiar to the millions around the globe who are still using Windows 7. Windows 10 is also more mobile-friendly and has generally earned solid marks. PCMag gave the operating system a rating of "Excellent," saying that it's "destined to win the hearts of all of those who were averse to Windows 8, bringing back familiarity and a bounty of new capabilities."

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It's likely that Windows 10 will only see its market share rise in the coming months. Since its launch on July 29, Microsoft has taken a stepped approach to the platform's rollout, offering it in stages as a free upgrade to anyone running Windows 7 or Windows 8. Microsoft says that its staged rollout will help it address issues more quickly and simultaneously continue to make tweaks to the operating system as bugs are discovered.

Windows 7 hit its peak of 61 percent market share in June and has since declined with the release of Windows 10. Microsoft's latest operating system had just 0.4 percent of the market (albeit on just a few days of availability) at the end of July.