Windows 11 has rapidly gained market share, now installed on nearly 75% of desktop PCs globally, while Windows 10 usage has declined to about 26%. This shift accelerated after Microsoft ended support for Windows 10, forcing many users to upgrade.
The transition has faced resistance due to Windows 11's strict hardware requirements and its push for users to sign in with a Microsoft account. Some users feel a loss of control over their machines and are exploring workarounds or switching to macOS or Linux instead.
Furthermore, Windows 11 has been plagued by buggy updates causing issues ranging from minor glitches to serious problems like data loss or boot failures. Microsoft has promised to address these flaws as the operating system's adoption continues to grow.
Main Topics: Windows 11 market share growth, decline of Windows 10, user resistance to upgrade requirements, operating system bugs and issues.
Windows 11 continues gaining traction, nears 75% market share — Windows 10 finally on the way out, some five months after Microsoft axes support
More people are getting into Windows 11, but is this by choice?
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Windows 11 continues to accrue more users, with Microsoft’s latest operating system now installed on nearly 3 out of 4 desktop PCs across the world. StatCounter currently reports that Windows 11 has a market share of 72.78%, jumping from just over 50% from late 2025. In line with this, we also saw a drop in active Windows 10 installs, with the older operating system now only at 26.27% — down from around 45% in the same period and a far cry from the more than 80% it commanded during its heyday.
Microsoft launched Windows 11 in October 2021, but it took several years for it to overtake Windows 10 in popularity. In fact, it wasn’t until several months after the company announced that it was ending support for the older operating system that it finally gained the majority from its predecessor. The biggest issue that stopped many users from upgrading was its stringent hardware requirements, which stopped millions of still working PCs from upgrading. Another issue is Windows 11’s insistence on using a Microsoft account for setting up your computer, with many users balking at giving the company their information.
Many users are exploring workarounds for these hardware and account limitations, but Microsoft is actively making it much more difficult to do so. Because of this, some feel that they’re losing control over their own machines as big tech continues to erode ownership. It could be that this jump in Windows 11 use is more from people upgrading their computers rather than a conscious decision to upgrade their operating system. We’ve even seen a phenomenon where former Windows 10 users are moving towards macOS, or to Linux, instead of buying the Copilot+ PCs that Microsoft and Qualcomm have been pushing hard since it launched in the summer of 2024.
Another thing Windows 11 users have to deal with is the various buggy updates that Redmond has been releasing with frustrating frequency. This ranges from annoying but harmless issues, like a missing sign-in password icon or reduced gaming performance on some Nvidia discrete GPUs, to potentially losing data due to unintended BitLocker recovery, the inability to control your PC in Windows Recovery Environment, and your PC outright refusing to boot after a security update. Things have gotten so bad that Microsoft promised that it would fix Windows 11’s most annoying flaws earlier this year, but we’ll have to wait and see how this will turn out in the coming weeks.
Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.
-
LordVile My organisation has just finished the W11 rollout with your work laptop having to be updated by last Friday. Probably a reason it’s taken so long with companies having staged or delayed rolloutsReply -
Gururu I've been having fun with insider preview feature last 6 months. Everything to me has been smooth and uneventful, but I put it on a new build so might explain why it got comfortable fast.Reply -
ezst036 When you apply force, you get results; when you light a fire in a forest, you get a forest fire. Well I guess a forest fire is news after all since that is arson.Reply
interestingly enough Windows total market share among all non-mobile operating systems continues to decline with Mac and Linux taking more and more away from Microsoft than ever before.
Best news this year! -
LordVile Reply
Depends what you go by. ChromeOS is used in some education sectors and MacOS will never get widespread adoption due to their perceived high cost. Windows is entrenched where it really matters which is the business sector and it would be so expensive for it to be replaced it never will be. Plus the lack of support for Office on Linux makes it a non starter.ezst036 said:When you apply force, you get results; when you light a fire in a forest, you get a forest fire. Well I guess a forest fire is news after all since that is arson.
interestingly enough Windows total market share among all non-mobile operating systems continues to decline with Mac and Linux taking more and more away from Microsoft than ever before.
Best news this year! -
Shiznizzle Nobara GNU/Linux. last 15 months now. Windows can take a hike. Some people have trouble defining what an abusive relationship is and how to spot when you are in one.Reply -
dawbs Forget bill he's alright, it's simple for me , can I get the latest game with graphics looking good and smooth gameplay, for me windows does enough ,I have no personal or business stuff on pc, however I would be going Linux if I did, I think there will be more Linux users from now on as having a cheeky windows install at work is no longer viable.Reply -
dimar I often right click on This PC then pressing G to open Computer Management, which worked since forever. Then someone at Microsoft decided to change the shortcut in the new Context Menu. WHY??? The File Explorer address bar features and shortcuts have been broken since the beginning of Windows 11 to this day.Reply -
TerryLaze Reply
Windows 11 is a free update to windows 10, what you are suggesting is that due to extortion more people bought PCs with windows 11 on it than there were people that already had PCs with windows 10.TechieTwo said:Extortion has proved quite profitable for Gates and company.
Linux sucks for gaming, it's great if you only want to play whatever runs well but if you want anything more than that it sucks.Shiznizzle said:Nobara GNU/Linux. last 15 months now. Windows can take a hike. Some people have trouble defining what an abusive relationship is and how to spot when you are in one.
Also ditto for professional work, there are too many things just missing either completely or only having very poor substitutes.
If it covers all of your needs, go for it. -
ezst036 Reply
It is currently happening.LordVile said:Depends what you go by. ChromeOS is used in some education sectors and MacOS will never get widespread adoption due to their perceived high cost. Windows is entrenched where it really matters which is the business sector and it would be so expensive for it to be replaced it never will be. Plus the lack of support for Office on Linux makes it a non starter.
Mac now seems to be up to like 20 something, 25%. And Linux gains year over year are always up, up, up as well. Give it another year or two and Windows won't even crack 60% anymore in the U.S. desktop market.
It's happening.
Meridiano
