Windows 11 market share still falling short of targets provided by Microsoft, while Windows 10 is still the “king” of desktop PCsaccording to Statcounter data.

A monthly report released by the analytics firm said Windows 11 gained 1.83 percentage points in October 2022, from 13.61% to 15.44%. A good monthly increase, certainly motivated by the launch of the new version 22H2, but not enough to reach the usage quota that we can consider important for the latest Windows releases.

In contrast, Windows 10 remains in unattainable territory (for now) with share 71.29%. Windows 7 still has 9.61%, which is a huge share for an operating system that has long since lost official support and which has its maximum expression in companies, where, according to data from the company Lansweeper, it is used more than Windows 11. The rest of Windows users are divided between Windows 8.1 (2.51%), Windows 8 (0.69%) and Windows XP are still alive at 0.39%.

The above data shows that the Windows ecosystem has 75.93% of the global desktop operating system market, a significant cut from the start of 2022. Here we must mention the rise of Mac sales and with it share of macOS up to 15.74%.

Linux, for its part, still doesn’t take the share its quality, freedom and reward deserve, remaining at 2.6%. Yes, it would be necessary to add the 2.38% of Chrome OS that Statcounter assigns to it before the Linux base used by Google. And we always talk about computers, because if we have a mobile device, the movie changes completely and the global world is ruled by another Linux like Android.

Statcounter’s data differs significantly from others such as AdDuplex, which assigns Windows 11 more than 23%. It is more or less the share that the latest Steam survey shows us and which, like the previous ones, helps us to evaluate the trends, since Microsoft does not provide official figures about its system and therefore exact values ​​remain unknown.

The difference in results is explained by different methods of data collection. AdDuplex gets statistics from apps that use its SDK (only 5,000), Steam is faithful, but only refers to its own clients, more specifically PC gamers. In comparison, Statcounter’s reports are more “open” because they are based on information gathered from over 1.5 million websites.

Why won’t the Windows 11 quota increase?

Data analysis and the general assessment of analysts and users is – in general – quite clear: Windows 11 did not fall in love with Windows users, and only a small part switched from previous versions. 15% is not enough. And it can add pre-installs on new PCs that all come with Windows 11.

The reasons are known and stem from the increase minimum hardware requirements and chaotic management of the same, with changes of course within a few weeks from Microsoft itself. Add to that the bugs in the updates that occur in every update and the broken promises in features that haven’t arrived yet.

Furthermore, while it offers a breath of fresh air in visual aspects and user interface, and to its credit that it supports much of the legacy of the gigantic Windows ecosystem, it’s still essentially a “tweaked” Windows 10. Windows 10 is also “guilty” the low market share of Windows 11. It is becoming more stable and will have official support until 2025.

It’s time to migrate to Windows 11. Or better yet, wait for Windows 12, which is already in development at the headquarters in Redmond.