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Companies like Accenture and L’Oréal are leading the way Windows 11 acceptance among companies, and while there is still a long way to go, analysts are not worried.
The latest data from web analytics service Statcounter (via The register (opens in new tab)) reveals that Windows 11 was running on 16.93% of PCs worldwide in December 2022, a slow but steady increase from the 15% adoption rate recorded by Statcounter in October 2022 and reported by means of Tech Radar Pro early November of that year.
While these numbers initially seemed low, Steve Keynhans, research vice president for Digital Workspace Infrastructure and Operations at market research firm Gartner, was unconcerned when he spoke to The registerclaiming that the numbers are in the “right range”.
A fraught history of Windows 11 adoption
In November 2021, one month after the release of Windows 11, research from Lansweeper revealed that less than 1% of PCs had been upgraded to the new operating system.
Comparing that figure to the latest adoption rates, it suggests convincing companies to make their business PCs to Windows 11 for the sake of their security posture is an insurmountable task.
It is vital that companies upgrade the operating systems on their PCs before an operating system reaches its end of life – a date set by the software manufacturer after which it will no longer offer security patches.
Windows 10 is expected to reach end of life on October 15, 2025. However, our report of Statcounter data in November 2022 also showed that 70% of PCs with any kind of Microsoft Windows operating system were running it.
With Microsoft itself warning in November 2022 that various security trends such as ransomware and phishing attacks are “going in the wrong direction”, it is important for enterprises to protect their systems with operating system upgrades.
However, in October 2022, Tech Radar Pro reported about the long-standing issue that many processors internal business PCs do not support Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 compatibility, resulting in 40% of tested devices within 60,000 companies not eligible for an upgrade to Microsoft’s latest operating system.
At the time, Lansweeper guessed that all PCs should be compatible by 2026, an estimate significantly shorter than Windows 11’s End of Life date.
As The register addresses can pay companies to continue receiving security updates for Windows 10 after that date, but that can be counterintuitive for organizations looking to reduce cybersecurity costs in the midst of a recession.
However, Microsoft itself remains confident in all enterprise adoption of Windows 11, with large companies leading the way and the rest likely to follow.
In October 2022, speaking of its current fiscal year’s first quarter results, CEO Satya Nadalla claimed that “Accenture, for example, has deployed Windows 11 to the PCs of more than 450,000 employees, up from just 25,000 seven months ago, and L’Oréal has deployed the operating system to 85,000 employees.”