Windows 10 now has half a billion users

It's always good to kick off a big conference with some good news and, for Microsoft, 500 million monthly active devices for Windows 10 is the best kind of news.

Microsoft announced the milestone during the keynote address at the company's annual Build Developers Conference in Seattle. 

In short, the world appears to really like Windows 10, a not-inconsequential accomplishment considering how the Windows crowd felt about its predecessor, Windows 8 (later 8.1) — an upgrade many PC owners decided to skip.

Half a billion users are nearly double the number Microsoft announced at Build 2016. When asked to characterize Windows 10's growth as compared to previous versions of Windows, Microsoft executives said it's hard to compare. Even so, they're pleased with the adoption rate. Read more...