Windows 8 share of the desktop OS market grew slowly last month relative to a surge in new users in June.

Windows 8 gained 0.3 percent market share in July, bringing its share to 5.4 percent overall, according to figures from web analytics company Net Applications. Following the launch of the OS in October last year, Windows 8 market share has been edging up by less than one percent each month, but last month's growth rate is down from June, when its share increased 0.83 percent.

While Windows 8 has only been installed on just over one in 20 PCs and tablets according to the figures, some analysts believe adoption of the OS will grow following the release of Windows 8.1 this year.

The 8.1 release will address criticisms about the usability of Windows 8 new tile-based interface, which some users of older Windows systems found confusing. The update will bring back the Start Button and make other UI tweaks, as well as introducing the ability to boot to the desktop and Internet Explorer 11.

Microsoft's Surface tablet, its flagship Windows 8 device, generated $853m between its launch and the end of June , less than the $900m writedown Microsoft took due to a Surface RT "inventory adjustment" .

Windows 8 predecessor, Windows 7, shows little movement in desktop market share, continuing to hover around 45 percent, where it has been since the beginning of the year.

Share for the venerable but still popular Windows XP is also broadly static, at 37.19 percent, up 0.02 on last month. Vista's share continues to drop, down 0.38 points to 4.24 percent.

Windows is still found on 91.56 percent of desktops, according to the figures, while Linux OS had 1.25 percent share and Mac OS X 7.19 percent. The share for each OS is largely unchanged from June.

The Net Applications figures are based on data collected from 160 million unique website visitors.