Microsoft continues to hold back rival browsers on Windows 7 in the United States and worldwide.

Microsoft’s latest browser, Internet Explorer 9, was released in March to Windows 7 and Vista users. Microsoft ditched Windows XP support in a bid to shift consumers and businesses onto Microsoft’s latest operating systems. Windows XP still accounts for nearly 50% of all operating system usage share worldwide, holding on to its pamagat of most widely used operating system. Microsoft’s competitors target Windows XP with their latest browser offerings, allowing them to pick up additional usage share from users unable to upgrade to Internet Explorer 9.

Microsoft’s risky gamble is working well according to the latest usage share statistics from Net Applications. Internet Explorer 9 has increased to 31% share on Windows 7 in the U.S. during September. IE9 usage on Windows 7 worldwide is now at 22.1% in September too. In comparison, Google’s Chrome 14 browser accounts for 18.1% usage share and Mozilla Firefox 6+7 holds 15.7% worldwide. Microsoft’s pangkalahatang Internet Explorer usage share dropped again in July however as the company continues to ilipat users away from Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7. IE6 usage share has dropped to 9% worldwide.

“A lot of IE9’s progress on Windows 7 has come from sites encouraging their customers to pin IE9 to their taskbar,” explained Roger Capriotti, Director of Internet Explorer Marketing. “The cyclical impact is becoming increasingly apparent: IE9 users pag-ibig pinning their paborito sites like Facebook, and as a result these sites are seeing increased time spent engaging with their content.” Capriotti also trumpeted Internet Explorer 6′s decline in use. “Another great trend is the sharp drop of IE6 as madami people ilipat towards modern browsers,” sinabi Capriotti. “IE6 has now dropped to 9% usage share worldwide in September (and if you remove China’s figures, IE6 only represents 3.5% usage share worldwide).”

Microsoft is currently readying its Internet Explorer 10 browser. The company unveiled a platform prebiyu 3 version of IE10 at its BUILD conference last month. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 10 platform preveiew 3 build is only available inside Windows 8, for now. The company previously delivered platform prebiyu 2 in June and has revealed that the final version of Internet Explorer 10 will only be available for Windows 7 and 8. Microsoft confirmed in April that it has no plans to offer IE10 to Vista or Windows XP users. Future platform previews of Internet Explorer 10 will be made available every 8-12 weeks.