With less than 100 days to go until Microsoft ends its support for XP, Windows users are slowly migrating away from the OS to Windows 7 and 8. However, almost a third of PCs are still running the 12 year-old software, according to December statistics from NetMarketShare.
Data shows that 29 percent of computers tracked by the firm are running XP, having seen a drop of more than two percent from November's data. The reduction will please Microsoft but it appears clear that thousands of machines will still be running XP past the looming support cut-off date.
Microsoft will end all support for XP on 8 April this year, but many firms and individuals may struggle to meet this deadline as the costs and upheaval involved with such a significant chance can be prohibitive.
Business critical software which has not been updated may only be compatible with XP, with organisations such as the NHS yet to upgrade and the likes of Poundland just beginning to migrate.
Smaller businesses with narrow profit margins may be put off by the up-front expense, and other firms which run much of their operations in the cloud may wonder why they need to upgrade when many of their business packages are running on an off-site virtual machine.
However, Microsoft has made several pleas to a loyal XP user base to migrate to newer software, claiming XP is up to six times less secure than Windows 8.
As users move away, Windows 7's and 8's market shares have both benefitted. Windows 7, originally released in 2009, saw a one percent month-on-month increase while Windows 8 and 8.1 have finally passed the 10 percent mark.
The majority of Windows 8 users are yet to upgrade to Windows 8.1, the latest version of the operating system, despite it being a free update available in the Windows 8 Marketplace.
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