Windows 11 adoption rate flattens amid stringent system requirements

Windows 10 21H2 saw the main growth in user adoption last month

Windows 11's user adoption seems to have come to a halt in March 2022, according to a recent survey from apps and games promotion network AdDuplex.

Between January and February, the percentage of people using Windows 11 increased significantly, rising from 16.1 per cent to 19.3 per cent.

However, data from AdDuplex shows that just around 19.4 per cent of Windows users were running the Windows 11 operating system as of March, representing a meagre 0.1 per cent increase over the previous month.

Instead, Windows 10 21H2 had the most significant rise in market share in March, increasing from 21 per cent in February to 28.5 per cent in March, a growth of 7.5 per cent.

The majority of this additional share for Windows 10 21H2 was gained at the cost of Windows 10 20H2. That particular version of the operating system saw its market share dip from 17.9 per cent in February to 10.8 per cent in March.

Lithuania-based AdDuplex gathered data from over 5,000 apps available in the Windows Store. These applications use AdDuplex's SDK for their advertising framework, enabling the firm to know which operating system is being used by the user.

If you're wondering why Windows users are not upgrading to Windows 11, there are a number of reasons that could explain their decision.

First and foremost, the majority of PCs do not have the necessary hardware to run a "supported" version of Windows 11.

Even before Windows 11 was released last year, its stringent system requirements, such as the TPM 2.0, were a major turnoff for users.

While Windows 11 can be theoretically installed on any old system, if your machine does not meet the OS hardware requirements, you will not be able to get software or security updates from Microsoft.

Aside from that, it's still seen as a buggy OS by many, making some unexpected changes to the Windows user interface.

Microsoft was forced to patch three remote code execution (RCE) vulnerabilities impacting the OS, as well as an issue that prevented the system from deleting certain files.

In recent months, the PC market has cooled somewhat from its pandemic-induced peaks, and analysts anticipate that the demand for new systems will level down.

However, demand would still remain higher than it was before the pandemic, resulting in a gradual rise in the number of Windows 11 systems.

Many new Windows 11 devices are expected to hit the market in the coming months, making it likely that adoption of Microsoft's latest OS will accelerate.