Microsoft’s stressed campaign to push hundreds of millions of Windows 10 users to upgrade continues. But there are still more than 700 million holdouts and an alarming redline for users without PCs eligible for the upgrade. While that’s thought to be around 240 million PCs, it could actually be a much higher number than that.
This week the company has pushed the hardware benefits of the TPM 2.0 security chip that is the primary dividing line between those PCs than can upgrade and those that can’t. But as Microsoft continues its struggle, there is some good news at home, as the Windows-maker has quietly crossed a critical milestone.
Per Stacounter’s latest data, there are now more Americans using Windows 11 than Windows 10 — a huge change as the October 14 deadline fast approaches. In February, only 42% of American users were on Windows 11, but by March that had jumped to 54%. Over the same period, Windows 10’s U.S. market share dropped from 66% to 44%.
Microsoft needs to replicate this in other key markets. Across Europe, for example, Windows 10 still holds a stubborn 55% share with Windows 11 down on 42%. And those numbers are not moving anywhere near fast enough to solve the problem by October. The situation is even worse in Asia, with more than 60% of users still on Windows 10.
Last month — the same month that Microsoft hit this critical U.S. milestone — the company warned users that PCs which don’t upgrade will be left wide open to “data breaches, identity theft, and other serious consequences.”
Source: Millions Of Americans Get Microsoft’s Free Upgrade Offer
