On Thursday Microsoft said they already have 14 million installs of Windows 10 after they released the OS to Insiders a day earlier.

It seems that number, large as it is, is itself a poor reflection of the enthusiasm of the Windows community for the new OS.

Statcounter, who measures web usage and by proxy the installed base of operating systems, gives us a much finer look at what’s going on, and suggests nearly 2.5% of the 1.5 billion desktop users are already on Windows 10, starting at 0.58% on Thursday, and looking at the rate of increase it seems Microsoft’s goal of a billion installs in 3 years will be achieved well before that deadline.

It is slightly early to analyse trends, but the numbers (ignoring the 1st, which was a weekend) suggest early upgraders were running windows 7 and windows 8.1, while those on XP, Vista and Windows 8 remaining unmoved, much as they were when Microsoft released other operating system updates.

Microsoft hopes a large installed base of Windows 10 will help stimulate its Windows Store, which would then help Windows 10 Mobile be more competitive with other mobile operating systems.

Hopefully a rapid uptake of the OS will encourage developers to invest in the Universal Windows Apps platform, which is good news for all our readers.