For November, Microsoft's latest version of Windows snagged 2.64 percent of all desktop OS traffic recorded by Net Applications. That number was a healthy gain from the 1.72 percent seen in October and the 0.87 percent in September.
The rise also pushed Windows 8.1 just ahead of Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks with a 2.42 percent share and just behind Windows Vista with a 3.57 percent share.
Windows 8.1 popped up in June as a preview edition before officially launching in October. The upgrade is free to Windows 8 users and offers several improvements over its predecessor.
Windows 8 continued to shed its share of traffic in November as more users upgraded to its successor. But combined, Windows 8 and 8.1 took home a 9.3 percent share, easily outscoring Vista but still playing a distant third to Windows 7 with 46.6 percent and Windows XP with 31.2 percent.
XP has gradually lost ground since giving up its dominance to Windows 7 in August 2012. But the 12-year-old XP continues to hang on among users and businesses. Time is running out, though. Microsoft is set to cut off support for XP in early April.
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