In spite of Microsoft's incessant warning to Windows XP users, the 13 year old OS saw a slight uptick in usage in January, ending the month at 29.2 percent of all desktop and notebook computers worldwide.

The OS is slated to be retired on April 8, 2014. Computerworld however is predicting that the OS will power about 27 percent of all personal computers at the end of April, and nearly 30 percent of those running one flavor or another of Windows.



Unless there is a significant decline, the OS will be powering one in five personal computers at the end of 2014.

Windows 8 is lagging behind that of Windows 7 at the latter’s same point in its uptake cycle, much to Microsoft's chagrin.