Microsoft’s Windows 11, presented by Microsoft in 2021, performed the long -awaited transformation in the desktop operating systems market. According to the latest report published by Statcounter, Windows 11 is now the most widely used desktop operating system. According to this data, Windows reached a share of 52 percent, while Windows 10, which has been leading for a long time, fell to 44.59 percent. This transition, which lasted about four years, shows that Microsoft’s strategy has a slow but steady response.
Although Windows 11 PC players were at the top of the 2023 autumn, the general user base did not have an increase at the same speed. The first two years of Windows 11 passed with slow adoption rates and hardware compatibility discussions. However, the decision -making process of the upcoming Windows 10 users has gained significant speed in recent months. This change in the market share clearly demonstrates that the transition has exceeded the critical threshold.
Hardware limitations and decisions affecting the passage speed shaped the Windows 11 process
One of the main factors in the slow adoption of Windows 11 was that system requirements were much more strict than Windows 10. In addition to security requirements of TPM 2.0, only supporting specific generation processors left millions of old computers directly out. Although Microsoft offers free upgrading to Windows 10 users, technical incompatibility has made it impossible for most users to take advantage of this opportunity. For this reason, the decision of the transition was forced to be given through hardware change, not software.
In addition to all these, Microsoft showed various messages to users who could not upgrade their systems to renew their systems. Some devices stated that it was not possible to switch to Windows 11 with full screen warnings and that new hardware should be taken. Although this is reacted by many users, market share data show that these warnings are effective to a certain extent. Most of the users seem to have accelerated the transition to new systems with the approach of support.
Windows 10’s support will end on October 14, 2025, and after that date, security updates will be provided only under certain conditions. Microsoft plans to offer a one -year free security update to some users to soften this process. However, those who want to take advantage of these free updates must activate the Windows Backup feature and synchronize the documents folder with OneDrive. Those who do not accept these conditions will either have to pay a $ 30 annual payment or spend 1000 points via Microsoft Rewards.
Nevertheless, many devices still work with Windows 10. It is observed that the transition process is more cautious and long -term planned, especially in corporate systems. System upgrades requiring hardware investment are not among the decisions that can be easily taken for many businesses. Therefore, although Windows 10’s market share is not completely reset, it is seen that the decline tendency continues.
On the software side, the innovations offered by Windows 11 and especially artificial intelligence -supported vehicles increase the motivation of users. New Copilot features, taskbar arrangements and performance improvements throughout the system support the technical reasons for this transition. In addition, in game and media performance, Windows 11 has been confirmed with many independent tests that gave more stable and faster results than Windows 10. These technical gains bring not only an aesthetic renewal, but also a functional change.
Statcounter data clearly shows that Windows 11 is now the main player of the market. This suggests that Microsoft is progressing in accordance with the product life cycle strategy. However, some users still cannot go to the new version because they are still attached to system requirements. This stands out as an obstacle that can be overcome by making the integration processes more accessible by hardware manufacturers and software developers.