Windows 11's adoption remains slows despite end-of-support for Windows 10
What's the story
Windows 11 has achieved a majority market share over its predecessor, Windows 10. However, the gap between the two is not widening as expected. This is despite the fact that support for several versions of the latter ended nearly two months ago. According to Statcounter data from November 2025, Windows 11 held a market share of just over half (53.7%) in the desktop operating system arena while its older counterpart still had a considerable chunk at nearly half (42.7%).
Market dynamics
Market share figures reflect a complex scenario
Statcounter's market share figures are based on data from a relatively small sample of websites (around 1.5 million) and include both consumer and business devices. Esben Dochy, Principal Technical Evangelist at Lansweeper, explained that consumers are more likely to stick with their existing devices or prefer stability over change. He also noted that consumers in the EU get Microsoft's Extended Security Updates (ESU) for free, which could be contributing to this trend.
Transition hurdles
Businesses face challenges in transition
For businesses, the transition to Windows 11 is often slowed down by slow change management processes. These can be due to poor planning, lack of resources, or execution difficulties in highly distributed organizations. Dochy said that while ESU are used for security during these processes, organizations will have to pay for them, making it more expensive for those that are unprepared or inefficient.
Adoption factors
Adoption curve tempered by secondary device usage
Kieren Jessop, Research Manager at Omdia, explained that when consumers buy a new Windows 11 PC, they often keep their old one as a secondary device. These machines continue generating web traffic and appearing in usage statistics even at lower intensity. This means the Windows 11 adoption curve represents net additions rather than pure replacements, tempering the rate of Windows 10 decline without reflecting actual purchasing behavior or the installed base composition of primary devices.
Strategic usage
Enterprises strategically use ESU in migration planning
Jessop also said that enterprises still on Windows 10 are using the ESU program as a strategic bridge rather than an alternative. "ESU have become a standard tool in biz PC migration planning 'rather than an edge case,'" he explained. Organizations are selectively using ESU to cover mission-critical systems with application dependencies, specialized hardware where Windows 11 drivers don't exist, and segments where refresh budgets haven't been allocated yet.
Feature gap
Windows 11's lack of must-have features
The main hurdle for Windows 11 is that, apart from the end of free support for many versions, there isn't a must-have feature to make enterprises break a hardware refresh cycle. Dell COO Jeffrey Clarke acknowledged this during an analyst call, saying they are lagging behind by 10-12 points compared to the previous OS end-of-support scenario.