Windows 10 Now Used by More Than 50 Million People: Report

For years, Windows' adoption rate has been the subject of constant jabbing and shaming for Microsoft, but this year rival companies will have to find some other thing to mock the Redmond giant about. That's because Microsoft's latest desktop operating system Windows 10 is doing pretty well. In two weeks since its release, more than 50 million users are said to be on the company's latest desktop operating system.

Microsoft released Windows 10 in 190 countries on July 29 as a free upgrade for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users, as well as new device owners. The company a day later reported that as many as 14 million users had downloaded and installed the latest desktop operating system version. Microsoft enthusiast website WinBeta reports that the number has climbed up to 50 million now, no doubt helped by the free upgrade.

To put the number into perspective, a 50-million-user count is an impressive figure. Windows 7, the most popular desktop operating system, was released in 2009 and is used by 600 million. 200 million licences of Windows 8, which was released in 2012, has been sold as of 2014 (do note, this number doesn't reflect the active Windows 8 user base). Apple's OS X operating system, across all its versions, was used by 80 million users as of June 2014.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has rolled out another cumulative update for Windows 10. The new update brings improvements to the desktop operating system. Weighing around 180MB for 32-bit Windows 10 edition, and 360MB for its 64-bit counterpart, the update being of a "cumulative" nature comes with all the bug fixes Microsoft has released for Windows 10 so far. You can download it via Windows Update or alternatively manually snag the files from the company's website.

Microsoft is said to be currently working on Windows 10's first major update, codenamed "Threshold 2," which is pegged to come with a new Messaging app and support for extensions in Microsoft Edge. The update is said to release in October.