Microsoft reckons Windows 10 is getting off to a flying start, and is now installed on upwards of 200 million devices.

The boast comes just after Internet analytics firm Net Applications posted data showing Windows 10 is now the fourth-most popular operating system in the world, but is fast catching up with Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows XP.

“As of today, there are more than 200 million monthly active devices around the world running Windows 10,” announced Microsoft’s vice president of Windows and Devices Yusuf Mehdi in a blog post yesterday. “In fact, Windows 10 continues to be on the fastest growth trajectory of any version of Windows – ever – outpacing Windows 7 by nearly 140 per cent and Windows 8 by nearly 400 per cent.”

Talk about rubbing salt into Windows 8’s wounds.

First, the positive spin. Medhi says that the vast majority (seven eights) of Windows 10 users are consumers, with enterprises and educational users numbering some 22 million in total. However, Microsoft reckons that some 76 percent of its corporate customers are in the process of testing Windows 10 for their businesses. In addition, a lot of the new users have been added recently. Microsoft says more than forty percent of its current installed base did so since December 2015, adding that users spent 11 billion hours running Windows 10 devices in total for that month.

The company also revealed Windows 10 users have spent a combined 44.5 billion minutes browsing the Web with its new Edge browser, though it happily omits the fact that the nascent browser is actually losing market share, despite being just a few months old.

On the face of it, it sounds like Windows 10 is going down rather well – forced upgrades not withstanding. But we should draw attention to the fact that Microsoft refuses to break down its figures by device or platform.

What we do know is that the “200 million devices” doesn’t include just PCs but also things like Lumia smartphones and Xbox One consoles. This of course helps to deflect attention from the real battle Microsoft is waging – getting PC users to upgrade to the latest OS.

Smartphone adoption of Windows 10 is also likely to be extremely marginal because very few Microsoft and Nokia phones can actually run the new OS. Numbers are rising slowly, but the vast majority of Windows Phone fans are still awaiting the upgrade from Windows 8.

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