The numbers don't lie. Net Applications’ NetMarketshare numbers for January show the number of Windows 7 users at 55.92 percent, which is near their 11-month high of 56.41 percent. And the number of users of Windows XP — whose share had plunged to 13.57 percent last November — are back up to 18.93 percent of the total.

Microsoft continues to warn users that XP is a security risk, but users are trying to protect themselves with a registry hack that identifies itself as an embedded version of Windows XP, which continues to receive updates.

Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 continue to chug along: Windows 8.1 stands at 10.04 percent, up from 9.49 percent in December but still down compared to the 12.1 percent it enjoyed in November. And Windows 8 is on the decline which seems to indicate that people are upgrading their OS.

Meanwhile on the browser side, IE continued its dominance, with 22.26 percent of all users, up slightly from December. Internet Explorer 8, used by Windows XP, totals 19.07 percent. Google’s Chrome 39 is used by 11.89 percent of users, down slightly from December.

Microsoft is still trying to figure out how to kill off XP since those users do nothing for the software giants bottom line.