Although Microsoft Corp. probably deserves high marks the efforts it has made to make Windows 10 more friendly for large enterprises, it turns out that the operating system is only slightly more popular than the aging Windows XP among business users.

That’s the main takeaway from a new survey on Windows 10 adoption by information technology network Spiceworks Inc. The survey found that Windows XP, which is by now most likely riddled with security holes as it no longer receives regular updates, is still being run on 11 percent of business personal computers, down from 14 percent in March. That compares with just 13 percent of business PCs running Windows 10.

“Despite the gains in Windows 10 penetration, the absolute share of computers running the OS remains relatively low,” said Peter Tsai, senior technology analyst at Spiceworks.

Both operating systems remain a long way behind Microsoft’s legendary Windows 7 operating system, which is running on 68 percent of all enterprise PCs, Spiceworks found. However, Windows 10 does at least come second with its 13 percent adoption rate, and its overall share has improved markedly in recent months. Back in March, it was running on only 9 percent of business computers, Spiceworks said.

Better news for Microsoft is that 60 percent of companies are running at least one instance of Windows 10, compared with 84 percent of companies running at least one version of Windows 7. That figure suggests that although Windows 10 adoption in the workplace isn’t as widespread as Microsoft might have hoped for, companies are at least showing an interest in using it.

One interesting point worth noting is that Windows 10’s penetration rate is lower than one of Spicework’s original forecasts. In a 2015 survey of more than 500 information technology personnel published just before Windows 10 was launched, Spiceworks found that 73 percent of respondents said their organization was planning to adopt the OS within two years.

Spiceworks didn’t attempt to address this discrepancy in its most recent survey, but the dominance of Windows 7 would suggest that many companies don’t yet see the need to go through all of the trouble of migrating their PCs to a new OS. After all, Windows 7 still does a perfectly good job with most work-related tasks.

Despite the low adoption rate, Microsoft itself seems pretty pleased with Windows 10’s progress, announcing earlier this year that there are more than 50 million business users running it.

As for Windows XP, its share of the enterprise seems sure to decline further. Tsai said its accelerating decline was likely thanks to a spate of high-profile ransomware attacks, including the infamous WannaCry and Petya incidents. The publicity around those attacks has pushed more organizations to look at modern operating systems in order to protect themselves, he said.

Overall, Windows 10 is running on around 500 million devices worldwide according to Microsoft’s latest statements.

Image: Spiceworks