Every month, dozens of articles are published online that show how much the usage of a particular version of Windows has increased or decreased. Steam Data and the data that StatCounter There is some information provided to support the claims. Yes, we have reported on this before.
This month's report sees Windows 11 overtaking Windows 10 on Steam. Not by a huge margin, but it's getting close to the 50% mark as it's powering 49.17% of all devices using Steam, according to the stats. Steam sees Windows 10 at 47.09%, which isn't too far behind.
Things don't look as good when you check the statistics provided by StatCounter. There, Windows 10 dominates the Windows space. It stands at 64.15%, which is double the 31.61% of Windows 11. Yet the trend is that Windows 10 is falling while Windows 11 is rising.
How surprising is this development?
When you compare the stats each month, you will notice that Windows 11 usage is increasing. It is best to check the averages and not compare month-to-month changes, as these can show strange fluctuations.
Still, Windows 11 is expected to grow. This is the new version of the Windows operating system and most PCs sold today are Windows 11 PCs.
You can still find Windows 10 PCs if you look, with most PCs sold with Windows 11 Home or Windows 11 Pro.
this is surprising
If one thing is surprising, it is how well Windows is performing. It was launched in 2015 to mixed reviews and then faced a similar situation as Windows 11.
Many Windows users loved Windows 7, which was the best version of Windows at the time. There was also Windows 8, but Microsoft made a huge mess of the operating system's launch. Even the release of the – much improved – Windows 8.1 did not change people's perception of that version of Windows.
So, Windows 10 faced competition from Windows 7 and did not grow as fast as Microsoft had hoped. You may remember the claim of 1 billion devices running Windows 10, which Microsoft abandoned when it realized it would not succeed. Telemetry played a role in this, but not as much as privacy-conscious users might have expected.
Granted, the advantage of Windows 10 was that all devices could be upgraded to the new version. And it was also free, so as to entice more and more users.
Windows 11 doesn't have this feature, as millions of devices are not compatible with Windows 11 and cannot be upgraded using Windows Update. There are some workarounds for this, but they require some expertise and it could very well be that you get stuck upgrading to an incompatible version, as Microsoft doesn't guarantee updates for them.
These customers are stuck on Windows 10. The good news is that Microsoft will provide extended security updates for Windows 10 for at least three years. This will come at a price, though, but many customers will likely pay Microsoft so they can continue using a Windows 10 system that is protected by the latest updates.
Microsoft has still not revealed how much home users will have to pay. It will cost a fortune, as Microsoft is more interested in getting customers to Windows 11 than making some money with Windows 10.
An alternative is provided by 0Patch, which promises to support Windows 10 for much longer than Microsoft. The company creates micro-patches that are applied in memory. This is good, because it doesn't change any system files. The bad news is that only critical and major issues are fixed. This should be enough in most cases, but it bears mentioning.
With a cost of around $30 per year, this may be a more affordable option.
Windows 10 is still a year away from being officially released
Windows 10 still has about a year of support left. Microsoft plans to end support in October 2025. By then, most Windows 10 users will have to make a decision: pay Microsoft or 0patch to continue security updates, run Windows 10 without security updates, switch to Linux or buy a new PC/upgrade an existing PC.
It is almost certain that many people will be overwhelmed and that threat actors will take advantage of it in the coming months.
In the coming 13 months, the use of Windows 10 will decrease and the use of Windows 11 will increase. This is certain. It will be interesting to see how much it will increase.
Imagine that according to StatCounter, next year too 50% of Windows users will be running Windows 10. Will Microsoft be able to deal with this problem?
What is your opinion on all this? Do you still run Windows 10? What are your plans for the coming year?
Thanks for reading..
