One survey says Windows 11 adoption hasn't even surpassed Windows XP yet

[Daniel Sims]

The big picture: Before Windows 11 launched, it was met with controversy over its confusing system requirements. A few months later, data is beginning to show that this may have stalled the operating system's adoption. How severely depends on who you ask.

A survey released by IT company Lansweeper this week paints a dismal picture for Windows 11 adoption among enterprise workstations. Among over 10 million devices surveyed, just 1.44% ran Windows 11. That's less than the 1.71% still using the 20-year-old Windows XP and the 4.7% using Windows 7. Windows 10 predictably dominates, detected on 80.34% of systems.

Another Lansweeper survey of over 30 million devices reveals what is likely a major factor in Windows 11's sluggish adoption: over half of enterprise workstations don't meet its system requirements. Only 44% of systems passed its notorious CPU requirements. The company's numbers come from anonymous scans of systems running its software, not unlike Steam's monthly surveys.

Steam surveys over the last three months indicate Windows 11 adoption that is much higher than Lansweeper's numbers, but stalling nonetheless.

The March Steam survey has 16.84% of participants using Microsoft's latest OS for a 1.25% growth over February. That's starting to look like a slump compared to the increase of 2.03% in February and 3.41% in January.

Reports from AdDuplex over the same period peg Windows 11 at 20% adoption in March (including Windows Insiders) with a stall similar to what Steam shows. Data from Windows Store apps running AdDuplex software on around 60,000 PCs shows Windows 11 use jumping by 3.1% from January to February. March however only showed an increase of 0.4%.

AdDuplex's chart below compares the adoption rate of Windows builds since 2016. It shows Windows 11, displayed on the far right, plateauing much sooner than any other build.

Ars Technica's analysis of Steam's numbers this week suggests we should never have expected Windows 11 to rise like 10 did. In 2015, many users were ready to upgrade from Windows 7 and the unpopular Windows 8, the latter of which bled users by double-digit percentage points in the two months following 10's launch.

Windows 11 by comparison faces much stiffer competition from its predecessor. CPU requirements are certainly holding back the newer OS, too, but it's early to say by how much.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/94228-one-survey-windows-11-adoption-hasnt-even-surpassed.html

 

[Achaios]

I own just two systems, an Haswell desktop and a Skylake laptop.

Skylake laptop even has Intel Platform Trust Techonology but despite all the hypocrisy about how much they care about end user security, it's still not good enough to run Win 11 acc to them though it should satisfy their requirements.

M$ clearly do NOT want me to use their new OS, ever, and as they willed it so it has happened.

 

[Sausagemeat]

Incoming comments from people that are butthurt that they won’t be able to install Windows 11 on hardware they bought years ago. Probably typed on an Android phone that has 1 year of latest OS support…

 

[Fearghast]

Incoming comments from people that are butthurt that they won’t be able to install Windows 11 on hardware they bought years ago. Probably typed on an Android phone that has 1 year of latest OS support…

TBH, I am glad I can't upgrade to Windows 11.
It most likely means I won't turn my PC one day and witness booting it broken, auto upgraded, Windows 11.
Win11 is fine I guess, I already tried to use it, but it's far from "better than 10" which already is a really poor base for OS you want to use for work or gaming.

 

[BSim500]

Hardly surprising with crap like this in the "introduce it as completely optional at first then gradually nerf the ability to disable it over the space of 5 years" pipeline...

"When enabled, Smart App Control uses AI and Microsoft's cloud knowledge base to check every app that runs, blocking anything unsigned, unfamiliar, or known to be malicious. There is no whitelist, so blocked apps will only get through if their developers sign them."

New Windows 11 security feature requires a clean install

When enabled, Smart App Control uses AI and Microsoft's cloud knowledge base to check every app that runs, blocking anything unsigned, unfamiliar, or known to be malicious....

www.techspot.com

... Which literally makes Windows 11 the worst possible choice for any gaming rig:-

- "Sorry, you can't play (insert name of thousands of older games whose developers went out of business and aren't around to sign them)".

- "Sorry, you can't use (insert name of .exe based mods like Skyrim Script Extender / Stardew Valley's SMAPI or 3rd party game support utilities like GameSave Manager, AutoHotKey, Fallout Mod Manager, etc, or 3rd party source ports like GZDoom, ScummVM, OpenMW, etc). The .exe's are all unsigned"

- "Sorry, you can't use (insert name of patch / mod that alters the game's original .exe) due to an 'unfamiliar' modified .exe".

It's painfully obvious Windows 11 / 12 / 365 is going to end up one giant anti-modding walled garden 5-10 years down the line.

 

[Sausagemeat]

TBH, I am glad I can't upgrade to Windows 11.
It most likely means I won't turn my PC one day and witness booting it broken, auto upgraded, Windows 11.
Win11 is fine I guess, I already tried to use it, but it's far from "better than 10" which already is a really poor base for OS you want to use for work or gaming.

I have windows 11 on my laptop. It’s just Windows 10 with a mask on. My desktop doesn’t support it but I won’t lose any sleep.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Incoming comments from people that are butthurt that they won’t be able to install Windows 11 on hardware they bought years ago. Probably typed on an Android phone that has 1 year of latest OS support…

Yes, it's great for both the environment and the people of the world who are not as rich as westerners that perfectly good hardware is deemed verboten by out glorious superiors in Redmond. I'm sure this won't result in millions hanging onto an unsupported security nightmare like XP did....

 

[Geralt]

Stupid MS requirements are crippling adoption. This company is famous for usually shooting its own foot.

 

[MaestroIT]

Well, most people can't upgrade because of the requirements, but there is also a good part of people who don't want due to its UI changes, especially the taskbar.

My PC do support Windows 11, and I installed a copy to dual boot, but for now I used it like a couple of times for less than 2 hours, can't stand the UI choices, taskbar, right click, browser choice...

Why go from a perfectly optimized UI and experience which gives me good control, to a solution that is a beta testing OS, with many promised old-features to come back, and other features that are not going to be brought back by M$ ever !!!

 

[Geralt]

Well, most people can't upgrade because of the requirements, but there is also a good part of people who don't want due to its UI changes, especially the taskbar.

My PC do support Windows 11, and I installed a copy to dual boot, but for now I used it like a couple of times for less than 2 hours, can't stand the UI choices, taskbar, right click, browser choice...

Why go from a perfectly optimized UI and experience which gives me good control, to a solution that is a beta testing OS, with many promised old-features to come back, and other features that are not going to be brought back by M$ ever !!!

Why? Because it's Microsoft.

 

[Nobina]

Incoming comments from people that are butthurt that they won’t be able to install Windows 11 on hardware they bought years ago. Probably typed on an Android phone that has 1 year of latest OS support…

So most people? Are you implying people should be buying a new PC and a phone every year or so?

 

[Nobina]

If you're using Windows 10 there's nothing to be gained by switching to Windows 11. I "upgraded" just for the looks since my PC is supported. You're probably more likely to avoid bugs by staying on a more mature Windows 10.

 

[dualkelly]

I am still running windows 7 and happily on most of my rigs. The one and only windows 10 is for the threadripper pro which has no win 7 driver support and it would be a cold day in hell after spending weeks ripping out the crap windows 10 installs on here before I install win 11 which as far as I can tell is still in alpha or beta and isnt even a finished product.

 

[Sausagemeat]

So most people? Are you implying people should be buying a new PC and a phone every year or so?

No I’m not. I’m implying there’s a double standard within the tech community. They ***** and whine when a 5 year old CPU isn’t supported on windows butI never see the same people complaining about Androids pathetic OS support for hardware.

You don’t need Windows 11. It’s a reskin, getting upset or angry about missing out on it is outright stupid.

 

[dualkelly]

No I’m not. I’m implying there’s a double standard within the tech community. They ***** and whine when a 5 year old CPU isn’t supported on windows butI never see the same people complaining about Androids pathetic OS support for hardware.

You don’t need Windows 11. It’s a reskin, getting upset or angry about missing out on it is outright stupid.

android is a phone OS. created for and used by phones not by laptops or computers. big difference man. also Considering that android works on id say every phone expect a iphones (think there's some projects out there that bring android to an iphone) and the very few ms phones out there id say android has excellent hardware support with over 80% of the market share in phone os.

 

[Nobina]

No I’m not. I’m implying there’s a double standard within the tech community. They ***** and whine when a 5 year old CPU isn’t supported on windows butI never see the same people complaining about Androids pathetic OS support for hardware.

You don’t need Windows 11. It’s a reskin, getting upset or angry about missing out on it is outright stupid.

Which mobile OS supports more hardware than Android?

 

[Raytrace3D]

I have several computers (workstations, a couple gaming desktops, a NAS, a 28-core VM server, a few laptops) on my network at home and just one new enough to run Windows 11 (TR 2950X) but zero desire or incentive too. I'll be running Windows 10 until Windows 12 comes out. Who knows, Linux might just end up being the next OS if M$ keeps up with their shenanigan's.

 

[Dimitriid]

What worries me is that they should have backed down at this point, but they aren't and yet, they aren't convincing anyone. This means that Microsoft will go back to their old tricks and become much more aggressive at pursuing upgrades, perhaps even forcing people to upgrade at one point or intentionally crippling Windows 10 machines.

I know what you're all thinking: that'd be suicide or at the very least a monumental mistake, but well all I can reply is Windows 11 is *already* a huge mistake that doesn't even register on a company that has survived decades of "huge mistakes" Like Millennium, Vista, 8 and now 11.

 

[Kazkas]

I use a Dell laptop with W11 at work (it came with W11) and I don’t see any improvements (except for small UI changes that don’t really matter) over W10, only 1 big drawback (the forced grouping in taskbar) and that stops me from upgrading my personal Ryzen 3600 PC to W10.

 

[yannus]

Windows 11 will be adopted massively no doubt like all previous versions were.

BUT for the first time I see big tech media starting to say that Windows is garbage and that Linux is ready for mass adoption including for gaming thanks to proton. If people would switch to FOSS, the computer industry would never be the same. When you see for example what Linux and Blender with very few investment can do, it would become insane just with a portion of what is spent in proprietary software. Also people OWN free and open source software in an era where people sometimes don't even own some functions of their car, the games they play, the movies they watch...

 

[deanimate]

Not really a surprise. Hasn't been out that long, some won't have hardware capable of running it (true you can bypass the TPM requirement but not everyone will know that) and I'm sure many will not be wild on the idea of upgrading so soon. Let the bugs get ironed out a bit more and then take a look.

 

[Sausagemeat]

Which mobile OS supports more hardware than Android?

iOS. If you buy an iPhone you typically get 5-7 years of the latest version of iOS. On Android you get maybe one OS update. Android phones are getting better with security updates but even the pixel will still only typically get 1-2 years of support for the latest version of Android.

The requirements for windows 11 are reasonable in my opinion. I think peoples expectations are just too high from previous OS not having hardware requirements above the underlying OS.

 

[Dd663]

The link on the homepage was awfully clickbait-y. "Survey says Windows 11 adoption hasn't even surpassed Windows XP". Yeah, for one survey exclusively involving enterprise workstations, but the title on the homepage makes it sound like it's referring to general adoption by all consumers.

Anyway, Windows 11 is fine. Like Windows 10, it's not much different from its predecessor.

 

[RudyBob]

Microsoft is in no rush

 

[yRaz]

iOS. If you buy an iPhone you typically get 5-7 years of the latest version of iOS. On Android you get maybe one OS update. Android phones are getting better with security updates but even the pixel will still only typically get 1-2 years of support for the latest version of Android.

The requirements for windows 11 are reasonable in my opinion. I think peoples expectations are just too high from previous OS not having hardware requirements above the underlying OS.

If you're going to bash Android at least get your facts right. There are 3 years of official support for the majority of phones out there. And, if you want, you can flash to a custom ROM that has support for MANY MANY more years. Considering that android is open source, you can install community made bug fixes years after official support has ended.