Win 10 Popularity

Windows 10 is firmly in fourth place among desktop operating systems, according to stats released Tuesday.

Microsoft's newly launched software grabbed a 5.21 percent share of all Web traffic generated by desktop operating systems in August, according to NetMarketShare. Windows 10 had been available as a technical preview since last October. But it barely registered as a blip on NetMarketShare's radar until it became available as a free upgrade to Windows 7 and 8.1 users starting July 29.

Among all desktop operating systems, Windows 10 ranked fourth in Web traffic last month, behind Windows 8.1, Windows XP and Windows 7 but ahead of Windows 8 and Mac OS X Yosemite.

Microsoft has been counting on Windows 10 to win back the love it lost with Windows 8, which rolled out three years ago but failed to catch on with the desktop crowd. To lure users to its new operating system, the software giant has revived the Start menu, tweaked the Start screen, added its Cortana voice assistant and made a variety of other improvements to the overall design and layout. PC sales are also in a slump, while Microsoft's share of the mobile market is in the dumps. Windows 10 is designed to work across a variety of devices from PCs to tablets to mobile phones. So Microsoft is looking to its newest version of Windows to grab more users across its entire ecosystem.

So far, Windows 10 adoption is far outpacing that of Windows 8 over a similar time frame. After Windows 8 officially launched on October 27 of 2012, it scraped up just a 1 percent share of Web traffic in November, according to NetMarketShare. Its share continued to rise at a slow pace and didn't reach 5 percent until the following June.