Microsoft has finally crossed a major milestone for Windows 11, just months before the end of support for Windows 10. Stat Counter, discovered by Windows Central, now lists Windows 11 as the most popular desktop operating system nearly four years after its release, with a 52 percent market share, compared to 44.59 percent for Windows 10.
Windows 11 became the most popular PC gaming OS in September, but overall adoption still lagged behind Windows 10 so far. A data leak in October 2023 also showed that Windows 11 was being used on over 400 million devices at the time, a slower adoption rate than Windows 10, which took just a year to reach 400 million devices compared to Windows 11’s two-year period.
The slow adoption is partly due to Windows 11’s hardware requirements. While Microsoft offered a free upgrade to Windows 10 users, millions of machines were left behind due to stricter processor and security requirements. Microsoft is trying to convince owners of those machines to upgrade to Windows 11, sometimes with a full-screen prompt.
Windows 10 support is set to end on October 14, and Microsoft recently announced that it will provide a free year of additional security updates to consumers if they are willing to enable Windows Backup and sync their Documents folder with OneDrive. If you don’t want to do that, you’ll have to pay $30 for a year of updates or redeem 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points.
