Andrew Heinzman
Despite its successful launch, Windows 11 adoption has reached a standstill. Data from AdDuplex shows that only around 19.4% of Windows users run the Windows 11 operating system, an increase of just 0.1% over last month.
Obviously, the an operating system’s growth has to stall at some point. But the share of Windows 11 users practically doubled through the end of 2021, according to AdDuplex data. It’s odd to see a reversal of that trend so early in the operating system’s life cycle.
But some Windows users may not be surprised by this data. After all, most PCs lack the required hardware to run a “supported” version of Windows 11. You can technically install the operating system on any old computer, but if your PC falls short of Microsoft’s strict hardware requirements, it won’t receive software or security updates from the company.
Plus, some people just don’t want Windows 11. It’s still a buggy operating system, and it introduces some unexpected changes to the Windows UI.
Judging by the data, most people who are eligible for Windows 11 have already installed the update. The remaining share of customers are sticking with Windows 10, either because their PC doesn’t meet Windows 11’s hardware requirements or because they prefer the older OS.
Microsoft probably thought that PC demand would increase through 2022 as it did in the first years of the pandemic. Either that, or Microsoft anticipated this problem as a trade-off for Windows 11’s strict hardware requirements, which theoretically increase user security and PC quality.
The company has made a few concessions to people with “unsupported” PCs, including a single software update. That said, Microsoft doesn’t seem interested in lowering Windows 11’s hardware requirements, so we should expect slow adoption from here on out.
