The big picture: Windows 11 has been known for its onerous system requirements since before it launched. A new report claims those requirements are keeping a significant number of systems from upgrading and that Windows 11 adoption is lagging. Other reports are far less dire but still not optimistic.
Lansweeper's Windows 11 readiness report shows that of 30 million workstations from 60,000 organizations, 57.26 percent are eligible for automatic Windows 11 updates. Over 40 percent don't meet Microsoft's notorious official system requirements.
In the initial run-up to Windows 11's launch, much controversy centered on its requirement for TPM 2.0 and a relatively recent CPU. Microsoft wants users to have at least an Intel 8th gen or AMD Zen 2 processor, but the company is considering allowing some Intel 7th-gen chips and Zen 1s. According to Lansweeper, those requirements are the main roadblock for ineligible systems.
The RAM requirement isn't a problem - 92 percent of surveyed workstations meet it. Conversely, only 57 percent of systems meet the CPU requirement, and 64 percent have the necessary TPM. Many of those workstations may be compatible with TPM 2.0 but might not have enabled it since some systems must engage the feature manually. While not great, these numbers represent a 12 percent improvement over 2021.
Microsoft's system requirements for Windows 11 aren't ironclad, however. Users may install the new OS onto ineligible systems, but they might not receive automatic updates.
Multiple surveys show that Windows 11 adoption has been slow compared to Windows 10. However, Lansweeper's numbers seem calamitous compared to AdDpulex's and Steam's.
In April, Lansweeper said only 1.44 percent of devices ran Windows 11 compared to the 1.71 percent using the two-decades-old Windows XP. This month, the group's Windows 11 number sits at 2.61 percent - finally above XP but still behind the end-of-life Windows 7's 3.38 percent.
AdDuplex's June 2022 numbers are very different but still mediocre. The report shows Windows 11 at 23.1 percent - a meager 3 percent increase from April. The most pessimistic report on Windows 11 adoption is AdDuplex's Windows history chart for June, which shows the OS's user growth flattening far sooner than every version of Windows 10 since 2016. Meanwhile, the September 2022 Steam survey shows Windows 11 adoption at 24.84 percent - up 1.06 percent from August and behind only Windows 10's 68.49 percent.