Free is clear: Windows 10 installed on 75 million devices after four weeks

Windows 10 is now running on 75 million PCs and tablets, according to Yusuf Mehdi, VP of Windows and Devices at Microsoft.

The company reached that number in four weeks, a milestone that is certainly attributable to the fact that Windows 10 was released as a free update to Windows 7 and 8 users.

Mehdi claims that 90,000 distinct hardware models have been updated to Windows 10, a protracted process that requires some users to wait weeks or even months to receive their “authorization”. Microsoft claims that its slow rollout has prevented the kinds of showstopping bugs often seen in distributions of this scale.

The exec also used Twitter to talk up the success of the updated Windows Store, which is seeing six times more app downloads per device than Windows 8. Developers that shunned Windows 8 for its poor adoption rates appear to be taking better to this new version, which features better tools and a much larger potential user base.

Windows 10 has yet to make its way to smartphones, but the company says it is working to release it by the end of the year. Microsoft is reportedly hosting an October event in New York City where it is expected to unveil two new high-end Lumia devices running Windows 10, after which the software will roll out to other handsets.

[source]Yusuf Mehdi (Twitter)[/source]