Not Even the Ghost of Obsolescence Can Coerce Users Onto Windows 11

Windows 10 may be just shy of two years away from the ax, but its successor, Windows 11, appears to be as unpopular as ever. The end of Windows 10 support is getting closer. Unless the company blinks, October 14, 2025, will be the end of the line for the Home and Pro editions of the operating system, yet users seem reluctant to move on to Windows 11. There was a marked reluctance by users to move from Windows 7, back in the day, but some of the reasons for hesitancy this time are different. The move to Windows 10 usually required the purchase of new hardware. It tended to be unavoidable — 7 could run on far lower-spec devices than later versions. The move from Windows 10 to Windows 11 will also require new hardware, but for different reasons.

Infamously, Microsoft axed support for a raft of hardware with Windows 11, including older Intel CPUs, on security grounds. The result was that hardware that will run Windows 10 perfectly well will not accept the new operating system. And this is not due to performance problems (who remembers trying to run Vista on XP hardware?) but rather because of Microsoft’s edict. The result? A collective shrug from PC users. Windows 10 does the job. Why upgrade? The figures speak for themselves. Windows 10 dominates the desktop. According to Statcounter, the worldwide Windows version desktop market share puts Windows 10 at 71.64 percent, with Windows 11 trailing at 23.61 percent.