Microsoft seems to be losing the battle to persuade Windows 10 users to upgrade to Windows 11

It's a new month, and we have another set of Windows adoption stats to look at - figures that Microsoft won't enjoy perusing.

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The latest from analyst outfit Statcounter is that Windows 11 is again going backwards with its market share among Windows versions - and Windows 10 is ticking up.

In April 2024, Statcounter observes (via Neowin) that Windows 11 dropped the best part of a percentage point to end up on 25.65%, while Windows 10 put on a percent (almost) to go over 70%.

The worst thing here for Microsoft is that the downturn for Windows 11 appears to be a trend. In February, Windows 11 crept up to 28.16%, so over March and April, it has dropped twice and shed 2.5% of its users.

That's really quite a bad turn of events, then. What with new PCs being bought all the time that have Windows 11 installed, you'd expect the OS to be bolstered.

The biggest problems that Microsoft likely has with Windows 11 adoption, though, are the hard blocks that prevent some existing PCs from upgrading - namely the system requirements that rule out systems with no TPM and older CPUs.

There may be ways of getting around those blocks by upgrading, but less tech-savvy users may not want to get involved in that - particularly not a motherboard change for an upgrade to a contemporary processor.

We'd imagine that Windows 11 will eventually recover its footing and its market share will stop dwindling - surely? At any rate, as always bear in mind that this is just one report, but other analysts also pin Windows 11 adoption at, shall we say, unenthusiastic levels.