Home windows 11 is now utilized by 400 million units, leaked Microsoft knowledge reveals

Home windows 11 is reportedly in use by greater than 400 million month-to-month lively units. Windows Central reports that it has seen “Microsoft inside knowledge” that reveals Home windows 11 is predicted to hit 500 million month-to-month lively units by early 2024. All indicators have pointed in the direction of a slower adoption of Home windows 11 than its predecessor and this leaked knowledge backs up the idea.

Home windows 10 first reached 400 million active devices simply over a yr after launch, an adoption fee that Microsoft proudly famous was 115 % sooner than Home windows 7. It has taken Home windows 11 two years to achieve that very same adoption fee, a major slowdown contemplating Home windows 10 reached 600 million devices a couple of months after its two-year anniversary.

Microsoft first launched Home windows 11 in October 2021 with strict {hardware} necessities. Home windows 11 is barely supported on CPUs launched from 2018 onwards, and with units that help TPM safety chips. Microsoft shifted the minimal system necessities to be able to concentrate on elevating the safety threshold in Home windows 11, with trendy chips able to enabling reminiscence integrity security measures that depend on virtualization and Microsoft’s Digital Machine Platform (VMP).

These {hardware} necessities have meant that Home windows 11 has lagged behind the Home windows 10 rollout, which was additionally supplied to Home windows 7 and Home windows 8 customers as a free improve. Home windows 11 was a free improve for Home windows 10 customers, however provided that they met the minimal {hardware} necessities that left millions of machines behind.

We’ve seen the sluggish adoption mirrored in Steam survey data, with Home windows 11 solely counting for 37 % of working programs, in comparison with practically 60 % for Home windows 10. Statcounter places Home windows 11’s market share at practically 25 %, far behind the greater than 70 precent of Home windows 10.

Microsoft has by no means formally shared what number of lively units are operating Home windows 11. The software program maker used to supply a mixture of Home windows 10 and Home windows 10 month-to-month lively units on its “Microsoft by the numbers” web site, however that was quietly discontinued late final yr. A cached page reveals there have been greater than 1.4 billion month-to-month lively units operating Home windows 10 or Home windows 11 in April 2022, based on Microsoft.

Microsoft’s personal help for Home windows 10 is about to finish on October 14th, 2025, that means an finish to safety updates and fixes for thousands and thousands of machines. If Microsoft isn’t in a position to persuade extra companies and shoppers to modify to Home windows 11 (or no matter comes subsequent) by 2025, then it appears doubtless that the corporate might want to lengthen that help cutoff date.

Microsoft hasn’t introduced any plans for Home windows 12, however there are indicators a future model of Home windows might be targeted on AI. “As we begin to develop future variations of Home windows we’ll take into consideration different locations the place AI ought to play a pure position when it comes to the expertise,” mentioned Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s head of client advertising and marketing, in an interview with The Verge earlier this year.