The share has been declining from a January 2022 peak of 82%, since Windows 11, which is now the second most popular Windows version in many countries. As of August 2022, Windows 10 is estimated to have a 72% share of Windows PCs, still 6.2× the share of its successor Windows 11 (and 6.0× of Windows 7). By January 2018, Windows 10 surpassed Windows 7 as the most popular version of Windows worldwide. Microsoft initially aimed to have Windows 10 installed on over one billion devices within three years of its release that goal was ultimately reached almost five years after release on March 16, 2020, and is by now most used version in virtually all countries. However, media outlets have been critical of the changes to operating system behaviors, including mandatory update installation, privacy concerns over data collection performed by the OS for Microsoft and its partners, and adware-like tactics used to promote the operating system on its release.

Critics also praised the improvements to Windows 10's bundled software over Windows 8.1, Xbox Live integration, as well as the functionality and capabilities of the Cortana personal assistant and the replacement of Internet Explorer with Microsoft Edge. Critics praised Microsoft's decision to provide the desktop-oriented interface in line with previous versions of Windows, contrasting the tablet-oriented approach of Windows 8, although Windows 10's touch-oriented user interface mode was criticized for containing regressions upon the touch-oriented interface of its predecessor. Windows 10 received generally positive reviews upon its original release. In June 2021, Microsoft announced that support for Windows 10 editions which are not in the Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) will end on October 14, 2025. Devices in enterprise environments can receive these updates at a slower pace, or use long-term support milestones that only receive critical updates, such as security patches, over their ten-year lifespan of extended support. Windows 10 receives new builds on an ongoing basis, which are available at no additional cost to users, in addition to additional test builds of Windows 10, which are available to Windows Insiders. Windows 10 was made available for download via MSDN and TechNet, as a free upgrade for retail copies of Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 users via the Windows Store, and to Windows 7 users via Windows Update. It was released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on July 29, 2015. It is the direct successor to Windows 8.1, which was released nearly two years earlier. Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. Afrikaans, Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Assamese, Azerbaijani, Bangla (Bangladesh), Bangla (India), Basque, Belarusian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Central Kurdish, Cherokee, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dari - Persian (Afghanistan), Dutch, German, Greek, English (United Kingdom), English (United States), Estonian, Finnish, Filipino, French (Canada), French (France), Galician, Georgian, Gujarati, Hausa, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Igbo, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Kazakh, Khmer, K'iche', Kinyarwanda, Konkani, Korean, Kyrgyz, Lao, Latvian, Lithuanian, Luxembourgish, Macedonian, Malay, Malayalam, Maltese, Maori, Marathi, Mongolian, Nepali, Northern Sotho, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Odia, Persian (Iran), Punjabi (Arabic), Punjabi (Gurmukhi), Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Quechua, Romanian, Russian, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian (Cyrillic, Bosnia & Herzegovina), Serbian (Cyrillic, Serbia), Serbian (Latin), Sindhi (Arabic), Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Mexico), Swahili, Swedish, Tajik, Tamil, Tatar, Telugu, Thai, Tigrinya, Tswana, Turkish, Turkmen, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uyghur, Uzbek, Valencian, Vietnamese, Welsh, Wolof, Xhosa, Yoruba, Zulu

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