The strict hardware requirements for Windows 11 even prevented some Microsoft employees from upgrading to the operating system.
In a blog post(Opens in a new window) Discussing internal efforts to roll out Windows 11 to its employees, Microsoft said it had to upgrade 190,000 employee devices to the operating system in just five weeks.
The company describes this commitment as perhaps the most “smooth” upgrade cycle Microsoft has ever had. However, not every employee machine is eligible for the OS. “Windows 11 has specific hardware requirements, and one percent of our devices are not upgraded,” wrote Social and Content Programs Director Lukas Velush in the blog post.
Velush did not disclose how many devices are not eligible for the upgrade. But in the meantime, “employees using these devices will continue to run Windows 10 side-by-side and receive Windows 11 devices at their next device refresh,” writes Velush. Of the 190,000 devices that were eligible and attempted to upgrade Windows 11, the transition was 99% successful, he said.
Windows 11 launched last year, but the free upgrade to the operating system is only available for Windows 10 PCs released in the last few years. As a result, millions of existing desktops and laptops will still use Windows 10 unless their owners are careful and upgrade to the new operating system manually.
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Strict hardware requirements can help explain why many users are sticking with Windows 10. Recent surveys show that Windows 11’s market share is only about 15% to 20% in the past year. when a poll even showed a lower usage rate than Windows XP. At the same time, some users have told us that Windows 11 does not give them a compelling reason to upgrade.
Microsoft’s blog post notes that the company’s own employees aren’t actually calling for the upgrade. “We have allowed our employees who wish to upgrade to use the PC Health Check app to check if their device is eligible for use. Our support teams didn’t get many upgrade tickets, but we prepared in advance by giving them early access to Windows 11,” wrote Velush.
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