Windows 10 received generally positive reviews, with most reviewers considering it superior to its predecessor
Windows 8.
CNN Business praised every aspect of Windows 10.
TechRadar felt that it could be "the new Windows 7", citing the operating system's more familiar user interface, improvements to bundled apps, performance improvements, a "rock solid" search system, and the Settings app being more full-featured than its equivalents on8 and8.1. The Edge browser was praised for its performance, although it was not in a feature-complete state at launch. While considering them a "great idea in principle", concerns were shown for Microsoft's focus on the universal app ecosystem: It's by no means certain that developers are going to flock to Windows10 from
iOS and
Android simply because they can convert their apps easily. It may well become a no-brainer for them, but at the moment a conscious decision is still required.
Engadget was similarly positive, noting that the upgrade process was painless and that Windows10's user interface had balanced aspects of Windows8 with those of previous versions with a more mature aesthetic. Cortana's always-on
voice detection was considered to be its "true strength", also citing its query capabilities and personalization features, but noting that it was not as pre-emptive as
Google Now. Windows10's stock applications were praised for being improved over their Windows 8 counterparts, and for supporting windowed modes. The Xbox app was also praised for its Xbox One streaming functionality, although recommending its use over a wired network because of inconsistent quality over Wi-Fi. In conclusion, it was argued that "Windows10 delivers the most refined desktop experience ever from Microsoft, and yet it's so much more than that. It's also a decent tablet OS, and it's ready for a world filled with hybrid devices. And, barring another baffling screwup, it looks like a significant step forward for mobile. Heck, it makes the Xbox One a more useful machine." On the other hand
Ars Technica panned the new Tablet mode interface for removing the charms and app switching, making the Start button harder to use by requiring users to reach for the button on the bottom-left rather than at the center of the screen when swiping with a thumb, and for making application switching less instantaneous through the use of Task View. Microsoft Edge was praised for being "tremendously promising", and "a much better browser than Internet Explorer ever was", but criticized it for its lack of functionality on-launch. In conclusion, contrasting Windows8 as being a "reliable" platform albeit consisting of unfinished concepts, Windows10 was considered "the best Windows yet", and was praised for having a better overall concept in its ability to be "comfortable and effective" across a wide array of form factors, but that it was buggier than previous versions of Windows were on-launch.
ExtremeTech felt that Windows10 restricted the choices of users, citing its more opaque setting menus, forcing users to give up bandwidth for the peer-to-peer distribution of updates, and for taking away user control of specific functions, such as updates, explaining that "it feels, once again, as if Microsoft has taken the seed of a good idea, like providing users with security updates automatically, and shoved the throttle to maximum." Critics characterized the release of Windows10 as being forced onto users of past versions of Windows. Examples of these have included
microtransactions in bundled games such as
Microsoft Solitaire Collection, default settings that display promotions of "suggested" apps in the Start menu, "tips" on the lock screen that may contain advertising, Due to the high system requirements of its successor
Windows 11, some critics have cited Windows 10 being better than its successor and have warned not to switch to Windows 11 given its high system requirements, despite very limited new features compared to Windows 10 at the time of release.
Market share and sales Up to August 2016, Windows 10 usage was increasing, with it then
plateauing, while eventually in 2018, it became more popular than Windows 7 (though Windows 7 was still more used in some countries in Asia and Africa in 2019). , the operating system is running on over a billion devices, reaching the goal set by Microsoft two years after the initial deadline. On August 26, Microsoft said over 75million devices were running Windows10, in 192countries, and on over 90,000 unique PC or tablet models. According to Terry Myerson, there were over 110million devices running Windows10 as of October 6, 2015. On January 4, 2016, Microsoft reported that Windows10 had been activated on over 200million devices since the operating system's launch in July 2015. According to StatCounter, Windows 10 overtook Windows 8.1 in December 2015.
Iceland was the first country where Windows 10 was ranked first (not only on the desktop, but across all platforms), with several larger European countries following. For one week in late November 2016, Windows 10 overtook first rank from Windows 7 in the United States, before losing it again. By February 2017, Windows 10 was losing market share to Windows 7. In mid-January 2018, Windows 10 had a slightly higher global market share than Windows 7, with it noticeably more popular on weekends, while popularity varies widely by region, e.g. Windows 10 was then still behind in Africa and far ahead in some other regions e.g. Oceania. Windows 10 is now the most used version in virtually all countries. Its market share peaked at 82.5% in December 2021, shortly after the introductions of its successor, and since then the share has been declining ever since Windows 11's release, which is now the second most popular Windows version in many countries. its successor
Windows 11's share of 32% (and 19 times Windows 7's 3.3% share). Windows 10 has an estimated 46% share of all traditional PCs (the rest being other Windows editions and other operating systems such as
macOS and
Linux), and an estimated 16% share of all devices (including mobile, tablet and console) Tom Warren of
The Verge felt that, given web browsers such as
Google Chrome had already adopted such an automatic update system, such a requirement would help to keep all Windows10 devices secure, and felt that "if you're used to family members calling you for technical support because they've failed to upgrade to the latest Windows service pack or some malware disabled Windows Update then those days will hopefully be over." Concerns were raised that because of these changes, users would be unable to skip the automatic installation of updates that are faulty or cause issues with certain system configurations—although build upgrades will also be subject to public beta testing via Windows Insider program. On February 9, 2016, Microsoft retracted this decision and began to provide release notes for cumulative updates on the Windows website. Some users reported that during the installation of the November upgrade, some applications (particularly utility programs such as
CPU-Z and
Speccy) were automatically uninstalled during the upgrade process, and some default programs were reset to Microsoft-specified defaults (such as Photos app, and Microsoft Edge for
PDF viewing), both without warning. Further issues were discovered upon the launch of the Anniversary Update ("Redstone"), including a bug that caused some devices to freeze (but addressed by cumulative update KB3176938, released on August 31, 2016), and that fundamental changes to how Windows handles
webcams had caused many to stop working. In June 2017, a Redstone 3 Insider build (
RS_EDGE_CASE in PC and
rs_IoT on Mobile) was accidentally released to both Insider and non-Insider users on all Windows 10 devices, but the update was retracted, with Microsoft apologizing and releasing a note on their Windows Insider Program blog describing how to prevent the build from being installed on their device. According to
Dona Sarkar, this was due to "an inadvertent deployment to the engineering system that controls which builds/which rings to push out to insiders." A
Gartner analyst felt that Windows 10 Pro was becoming increasingly inappropriate for use in enterprise environments because of support policy changes by Microsoft, including consumer-oriented upgrade lifecycle length, and only offering extended support for individual builds to Enterprise and Education editions of Windows 10. Critics have acknowledged that Microsoft's update and testing practices had been affecting the overall quality of Windows 10. In particular, it was pointed out that Microsoft's internal testing departments had been prominently affected by a major round of layoffs undertaken by the company in 2014. Microsoft relies primarily on user testing and bug reports via the Windows Insider program (which may not always be of sufficient quality to identify a bug), as well as correspondence with OEMs and other stakeholders. In the wake of the known folder redirection data loss bug in the version 1809, it was pointed out that bug reports describing the issue had been present on the
Feedback Hub app for several months prior to the public release. Following the incident, Microsoft updated Feedback Hub so that users may specify the severity of a particular bug report. When announcing the resumption of 1809's rollout, Microsoft stated that it planned to be more transparent in its handling of update quality in the future, through a series of blog posts that will detail its testing process and the planned development of a "dashboard" that will indicate the rollout progress of future updates.
Distribution practices Microsoft was criticized for the tactics that it used to promote its free upgrade campaign for Windows 10, including
adware-like behaviors, The upgrade offer was marketed and initiated using the "Get Windows 10" (GWX) application, which was first downloaded and installed via Windows Update in March 2015. Third-party programs were created to assist users in applying measures to disable GWX. In September 2015, it was reported that Microsoft was triggering automatic downloads of Windows 10 installation files on all compatible Windows 7 or 8.1 systems configured to automatically download and install updates, regardless of whether or not they had specifically requested the upgrade. Microsoft officially confirmed the change, claiming it was "an industry practice that reduces the time for installation and ensures device readiness." This move was criticized by users with
data caps or devices with low storage capacity, as resources were consumed by the automatic downloads of up to 6 GB of data. Other critics argued that Microsoft should not have triggered any downloading of Windows 10 installation files without user consent. In October 2015, Windows 10 began to appear as an "Optional" update on the Windows Update interface, but pre-selected for installation on some systems. A Microsoft spokesperson said that this was a mistake, and that the download would no longer be pre-selected by default. However, on October 29, 2015, Microsoft announced that it planned to classify Windows 10 as a "recommended" update in the Windows Update interface sometime in 2016, which would cause an automatic download of installation files and a one-time prompt with a choice to install to appear. In December 2015, it was reported that a new advertising dialog had begun to appear, only containing "Upgrade now" and "Upgrade tonight" buttons, and no obvious method to decline installation besides the close button. In March 2016, some users also alleged that their Windows 7 and 8.1 devices had automatically begun upgrading to Windows 10 without their consent. In June 2016, the GWX dialog's behavior changed to make closing the window imply a consent to a scheduled upgrade. In December 2016, Microsoft's chief marketing officer
Chris Capossela admitted that the company had "gone too far" by using these tactics, stating "we know we want people to be running Windows 10 from a security perspective, but finding the right balance where you're not stepping over the line of being too aggressive is something we tried and for a lot of the year I think we got it right." On January 21, 2016, Microsoft was sued in
small claims court by a user whose computer had attempted to upgrade to Windows 10 without her consent shortly after the release of the operating system. The upgrade failed, and her computer was left in a broken state thereafter, which disrupted the ability to run her travel agency. The court ruled in favor of the user and awarded her $10,000 in damages, but Microsoft appealed. However, in May 2016, Microsoft dropped the appeal and chose to pay the damages. Shortly after the suit was reported on by the
Seattle Times, Microsoft confirmed it was updating the GWX software once again to add more explicit options for opting out of a free Windows 10 upgrade; In March 2019, Microsoft announced that it would display notifications informing users on Windows 7 devices of the upcoming end of extended support for the platform, and direct users to a website urging them to upgrade to Windows 10 or purchase new hardware. This dialog will be similar to the previous Windows 10 upgrade prompts, but will not explicitly mention Windows 10.
Privacy and data collection Privacy advocates and other critics have expressed concern regarding Windows10's privacy policies and its collection and use of customer data. Under the default "Express" settings, Windows10 is configured to send various information to Microsoft and other parties, including the collection of user contacts, calendar data, and "associated input data" to personalize "speech, typing, and inking input", typing and inking data to improve recognition, allowing apps to use a unique "advertisingID" for analytics and advertising personalization (functionality introduced by Windows 8.1) and allow apps to request the user's location data and send this data to Microsoft and "trusted partners" to improve location detection (Windows8 had similar settings, except that location data collection did not include "trusted partners" Microsoft's privacy policy states, however, that "Basic"-level telemetry data is
anonymized and cannot be used to identify an individual user or device. The use of Cortana also requires the collection of data "such as Your PC location, data from your calendar, the apps you use, data from your emails and text messages, who you call, your contacts and how often you interact with them on Your PC" to personalize its functionality. In August 2015, Russian politician
Nikolai Levichev called for Windows10 to be banned from use within the
Russian government, as it sends user data to servers in the United States. The Russian government had passed a federal law requiring all online services to store the data of Russian users on servers within the country by September 2016 or be blocked. Writing for
ZDNet, Ed Bott said that the lack of complaints by businesses about privacy in Windows10 indicated "how utterly normal those privacy terms are in 2015." The Microsoft Services agreement reads that the company's online services may automatically "download software updates or configuration changes, including those that prevent you from accessing the Services, playing counterfeit games, or using unauthorized hardware peripheral devices." Critics interpreted this statement as implying that Microsoft would scan for and delete
unlicensed software installed on devices running Windows10. However, others pointed out that this agreement was specifically for Microsoft online services such as Microsoft account,
Office 365, Skype, as well as Xbox Live, and that the offending passage most likely referred to
digital rights management on
Xbox consoles and first-party games, and not plans to police pirated video games installed on Windows10 PCs. Despite this, some
torrent trackers announced plans to block Windows10 users, also arguing that the operating system could send information to anti-piracy groups that are affiliated with Microsoft. Writing about these allegations, Ed Bott of
ZDNet compared Microsoft's privacy policy to Apple's and Google's and concluded that he "[did not] see anything that looks remotely like
Big Brother." Columnist
Kim Komando argued that "Microsoft might in the future run scans and disable software or hardware it sees as a security threat", consistent with the Windows10 update policy. In September 2019, Microsoft hid the option to create a local account during a fresh installation if a PC is connected to the internet. This move was criticized by users who did not want to use an online Microsoft account. Additionally, in Windows 10 Home, the first Microsoft account linked to the primary user's account can no longer be unlinked, but other users can unlink their own Microsoft accounts from their user accounts. In late-July 2020, Windows Defender began to classify modifications of the
hosts file that block Microsoft telemetry servers as being a severe security risk. == See also ==