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Windows 10 is now on 1 billion devices

Microsoft ended support for Windows 7 in January, encouraging more people to upgrade to Windows 10 -- and it seems to have worked.

Alison DeNisco Rayome Managing Editor
Managing Editor Alison DeNisco Rayome joined CNET in 2019, and is a member of the Home team. She is a co-lead of the CNET Tips and We Do the Math series, and manages the Home Tips series, testing out new hacks for cooking, cleaning and tinkering with all of the gadgets and appliances in your house. Alison was previously an editor at TechRepublic.
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Alison DeNisco Rayome
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The Windows 10 bandwagon is filling up.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Windows 10 now has more than 1 billion active users worldwide, Microsoft said Monday. The milestone comes about two months after Microsoft ended support for Windows 7 and encouraged people to upgrade to Windows 10

"One in every seven people on the planet are planning, creating, ideating, executing, moving, shaking and doing great things with Windows 10," Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president of modern life, search and devices at Microsoft, said Monday in a blog post.

Windows 10 is found in more than 80,000 models and configurations of laptops and 2-in-1s from more than 1,000 different manufacturers, Mehdi said. It also powers Microsoft's Mixed Reality and HoloLens devices. 

Read more at TechRepublic: Windows 10: A cheat sheet

In the business world, 100% of the Fortune 500 uses Windows 10 devices, Mehdi said. 

A decade ago, Windows was by far the world's dominant platform, but Apple and Android managed to beat it to this active device milestone thanks in large part to their mobile presence: Apple hit 1 billion active devices worldwide in 2016, and Android hit the 2 billion device mark in 2017. 

For more, check out how to download Windows 10 for free, now that Windows 7 is dead11 easy Windows 10 tricks you didn't know about, and the best Windows 10 laptops to update your retired Windows 7 dinosaur. 

Watch this: Windows 10: Features to try now