Windows 11 has fewer users than both Windows 7 and Windows XP

Windows 11 has fewer users than both Windows 7 and Windows XP, both of which have reached the end of their respective life cycles.

Windows 10 is still the dominant version, with 80.34% of users having it on their machine, according to research from IT management analyst Lansweeper.

However, only 1.44% of users have made the jump to Windows 11, which lags behind both Windows 7 (4.70%) and Windows XP (1.71%). The slow adoption of Windows 11 has gradually become more and more of a talking point, with previous Lansweeper reports suggesting there was only a 0.3% uptake of Windows 11 over the Christmas period.

"Although the rate of adoption is increasing bit by bit, it's obvious that Windows 11 upgrades aren't going as fast as Microsoft had hoped, especially within the business environment," said Roel Decneut, chief strategy officer at Lansweeper. "Many organisations have been put off from having to buy new machines that meet these conditions, while others are simply happy with the current existence of Windows 10 which continues to be supported until 2025."

This situation will likely continue in the future unless businesses are given a compelling reason to upgrade, according to Decneut, who stressed that it's the reason IT asset management is so important for organisations. There are, of course, several reasons, for individuals and businesses, to not jump to Windows 11 just yet. But Landsweeper research suggests that the requirements for automated updates could be too much of a barrier.

Microsoft does allow for manual installation of Windows 11, regardless of a user's CPU, but for the automatic upgrade, there are still very specific requirements for CPU, RAM and the Trusted Module Platform (TPM). According to Lansweeper estimates of 30 million Windows laptops and desktop PCs from 60,000 organisations, on average, only 44.5% are eligible to receive the automatic upgrade.

Breaking it down further, it appears that the TPM is the most likely deal-breaker, with just over half of the workstations not meeting its requirements. The TPM is a standard of cryptoprocessor and users need TPM 2.0 for the automatic upgrade to Windows 11. However, Lansweeper's research suggests that around 19% of the machines tested failed here with a further 28% either not compatible or simply not enabled.