Windows 11 is said to be in use by more than 400 million monthly active devices.
Windows Central reports that it has seen "internal Microsoft data" showing that Windows 11 is expected to reach 500 million monthly active devices by early 2024, and all signs point to slower adoption of Windows 11 compared to its predecessor, and this leaked data supports the assumption, According to a report by The Verge.
Windows 10 first reached 400 million active devices just over a year after its release, an adoption rate that Microsoft proudly noted was 115 percent faster than Windows 7, and it took Windows 11 two years to reach the same rate. Adoption, which is a significant slowdown considering Windows 10 reached 600 million devices just months after its second anniversary.
Microsoft first launched Windows 11 in October 2021 with strict hardware requirements. Windows 11 is only supported on CPUs released from 2018 onwards, and with devices that support TPM security chips.
Microsoft has changed the minimum system requirements to focus on raising the security threshold in Windows 11, with newer chipsets capable of enabling memory integrity security features that rely on virtualization and Microsoft's Virtual Machine Platform (VMP).
These hardware requirements meant that Windows 11 fell behind the rollout of Windows 10 , which was also offered to Windows 7 and Windows 8 users as a free upgrade. Windows 11 was a free upgrade for Windows 10 users, but only if they met the minimum hardware requirements, which left millions of devices Behind them.
We've seen slow adoption reflected in Steam's survey data, where Windows 11 represents only 37 percent of operating systems, compared to about 60 percent for Windows 10. Statcounter estimates Windows 11's market share at roughly 25 percent, which is far behind More than 70% of Windows 10.
Microsoft has never officially shared the number of active devices running Windows 11. The software maker used to offer a set of monthly active devices running Windows 10 and Windows 10 on Microsoft's "By the Numbers" website, but that was quietly discontinued late last year. The cached page reveals that there were more than 1.4 billion monthly active devices running Windows 10 or Windows 11 in April 2022, according to Microsoft.
Working on Microsoft's own numbers that would put Windows 11 in roughly 30% of Windows usage, with Windows 10 still being used by nearly a billion devices.
Microsoft achieved its goal of reaching one billion devices running Windows 10 in March 2020, more than 18 months before the launch of Windows 11.
Microsoft's support for Windows 10 is scheduled to end on October 14, 2025, which means the end of security updates and fixes for millions of devices, and if Microsoft is not able to convince more businesses and consumers to switch to Windows 11 (or whatever comes after that) by 2025 , it is likely that the company will need to extend this support cut-off date.
Microsoft is now expected to launch Windows 12 in 2024, and Intel recently teased a 2024 “Windows Update” that it hopes will boost its revenue. The teaser came months after references to Windows 12 leaked from internal Intel documents.