Survey shows XP lingers on while Windows 11 makes a 0.21% ripple in the enterprise

The Register ^ | Nov 17, 2021 | Richard Speed

[dayglored]

Dayglored comment: Remember, this is about Corporate Business computers, most of which are managed by corporate IT groups and the uptake of new software, especially a new operating system, is glacially slow, often only happening when new hardware is purchased. Even so, 0.21% is notably low. The uptake on consumer/personal/home computers is, of course, much faster because consumers buy new computers much more often, and are much more likely to upgrade to the latest-and-greatest OS.

---

Lansweeper stats make grim reading for Microsoft

Microsoft's Windows 11 adventure is going swimmingly. IT asset management outfit Lansweeper has published the results of a 10 million PC survey that gives the new operating system a 0.21 per cent market share.

That is a good deal less than the 3.62 per cent of Windows XP and a nose ahead of the reviled Windows Vista. It is also not great news as the OS enters its second month of general availability.

App advertising biz AdDuplex put the figure nearer five per cent, although its survey was far smaller at 60,000 Windows 10 and 11 PCs. AdDuplex's data is also based on the approximately 5,000 Windows Store apps running its SDK.

Lansweeper's research comes from 10 million Windows devices, presumably in the business world, of which the IT asset management platform reckoned less than 45 per cent could take the update to Windows 11, thanks to Microsoft's stringent hardware requirements.

It is also worth bearing in mind that the Windows 11 rollout will take place over a number of months as Microsoft keeps an eye on what breaks and what doesn't. Users with compatible PCs running Windows Update could well receive a message promising the update is on the way at some point in the future. Or telling them that Windows 11 won't work on their kit.

That said, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that users are staying away in droves for the time being, and enterprises are highly unlikely to go near the code until a year or more after release.

Plus, the Lansweeper data threw up some statistics that could be more concerning than the snails-pace adoption of Windows 11.

Windows XP accounted for 3.62 per cent of PCs in the survey and Windows 7 was a hair under 6 per cent. Both are out of support, although Microsoft will keep security patches coming for the latter – at a price.

Even more disturbing are those mystery beige boxes in the server room that nobody likes to talk about. Windows Server 2008 accounted for 0.57 per cent of the PCs in the report despite also being well out of mainstream support. Even Windows Server 2003 was still hanging on in there.

With almost one in 10 Windows devices running end-of-life software, opportunities for miscreants abound.

Roel Decneut, chief marketing officer at Lansweeper, stated the obvious: "The situation poses a significant cybersecurity risk... Although the majority of users are on newer operating systems, the billions of active Windows devices worldwide means there could still be millions of people using devices that are insecure and open to attack.

"Plus, a large number of these outdated systems are predicted to be running on enterprise devices, which means it's not just personal information that's on the line."

We asked Lansweeper other questions about its research but have yet to receive a response.

Speaking about the discrepancy between his firm's figures and those of Lansweeper, AdDuplex CEO Alan Mendelevič pointed out that enterprises tended to be much slower on the uptake of new operating systems.

He told The Register: "Our data is highly skewed towards the consumer PCs (much more likely to upgrade at the first opportunity)."

"At any rate," he observed, "0.21 per cent seems extremely low overall. But could be totally reasonable if it's just from the managed company PCs."

We have asked Microsoft to comment. ®

[zeugma]

I question why any sane business would use windoze at all.

[dayglored]

> I question why any sane business would use windoze at all.

It depends entirely on what the business is. There are large segments of the business world that are completely dependent on Windows because it has been so ingrained for so long that the tools of their business are Windows-only and will remain so.

Yeah, a lot of software is now cross-platform, but that entails retraining, and hybrid OS environments are harder to support. Open Source will continue to make inroads but it also has a cost in retraining and near-but-not-quite compatibility with the established Microsoft Windows/Office standard.

In the software development world, nearly everything is now done in Linux, and Windows fanbois are using the WSL Linux-on-Windows features because software development in pure Windows is dead except for the remaining Windows-only applications. But you'd be amazed how much pain and suffering and hair-tearing and wailing to IT happens in the lives of the developers who are staunch Windows users. They'll give up Windows only after they've been dead a week; but the weeping and gnashing of teeth as they keep trying to use it are amazing to behold. Cold dead fingers.

So businesses with lots of Windows computers will continue to have Windows computers, whether it makes sense or not.

OTOH, a lot of businesses went down the tubes in the last 20 months, and the best time to throw out old computers and buy new ones is when you are forced to start over. So maybe that will drive more businesses to look at alternatives to the established standard.

[minnesota_bound]

This guy does not like Windows 11 so much.
He has 14 million subscribers.... his videos can get higher numbers then some tv shows. He is a nerd and rich.

11 Things I Hate About Windows 11
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxF-pQSzSUM

[minnesota_bound]

#14
The upgrade process is you start the install of Windows 10.
It should retain all your files but back up for sure.

Go here for Windows 10 at Microsoft. You may need to purchase a license.
Also get the Pro version if you are going to use more then 16gb of ram memory.
Windows Home only recognizes 16gb of ram memory.

Download Windows 10
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Or buy from the Newegg store. There are many others selling. This is actual store: Newegg https://www.newegg.com

Windows 10 Pro 64-bit - OEM
https://www.ebay.com/itm/301700272994?epid=1159458728&hash=item463ebcd362:g:hi0AAOSwAJRc48Z7

You can buy a copy of Windows 7 at Ebay for very little money.
I have bought a few copies of Windows 7 from here.

Microsoft Windows 7 Operating System Software
https://www.ebay.com/b/Microsoft-Windows-7-Operating-System-Software/11226/bn_2780793

I still use Windows 7 and it is fast. I will keep using it as there is no reason to upgrade - downgrade as far as I am concern to 10.
I have my anti-virus and anti-spyware programs so do not worry about safety . I use Malwarebytes and Webroot

I can still make changes easier whereas the Windows 10 I had to use at work or the one I have on a extra pc of mine, it is clunky to say the least.

[Wonder Warthog]

"Personally I think Microsoft made a mistake labeling this new release "Windows 11". They should have just made it the next incremental release of Windows 10, and people would have not had that visceral reaction that comes from every major upgrade. "

Nah...the breaking point for me was their decision to try to FORCE me to upgrade my hardware and buy something expensive. Less pain and expense to simply dump Winodws, and this time, I think people will. I plan to.

[Wonder Warthog]

"It’s a big problem."

The same is true for a lot of very big, very expensive hardware. My background is instrumental chemical analysis, and things like ICP-MS, NMR, can cost upwards of and often more than half-a-million to a million bucks...PER INSTRUMENT. They require specialized software to run the specialized hardware, and is largely NOT "backwards software compatible" in either direction.

[rarestia]

Our recommendations for those systems is to air gap them if not completely disconnect them from any networks. If they work, that’s fine, but don’t introduce outside vectors for attack.

[Wonder Warthog]

"Our recommendations for those systems is to air gap them if not completely disconnect them from any networks. If they work, that’s fine, but don’t introduce outside vectors for attack."

The problem isn't networks being attacked, it is hugely expensive and many times irreplaceable hardware not working AT ALL. The problem is so big that there are actually small companies building computers with "old" (new in mfg date, but old in version used) hardware just to run the driving software that Microsoft would require be thrown out just because a computer that cost 0.01% of the total instrument price is "no longer compatible". Backwards compatibility is an absolute must....

[Paladin2]

“One is 2 Tb and will hold anything I will ever need it to.
“

Isn’t that what Bill Gate$ said about 640K?

[nascarnation]

Back when I was at GM Powertrain, the slogan was “software always expands to fill available storage”

[Paladin2]

” It’s a big problem.”

Y2XP?

[Paladin2]

It’s always been easy to write s/w to overcome the h/w.

Spaghetti code was necessary back in the day to get a real-time system optimized/maximixed for function.

[Openurmind]

Lol, We have came a long way haven’t we? I still have a single sided floppy drive around here somewhere.

I am personally pretty tidy with cleaning out or moving my unneeded files to external media and don’t do much video. So I have never used up or needed much storage on my hard drive. I have three Linux OS installs stacked on that 2Tb drive and will still never fill them all up. Don’t like to leave all my eggs in one basket. :)

[Openurmind]

“software always expands to fill available storage”

Seemed for years that was exactly the goal of MS. Same with CPU speed. As soon as a faster CPU came out they would cram it so full of processing it was right back to as slow as the older CPU. Ram, Bus speed, Etc. As soon as it got faster MS would create bloat to slow it all back down again.

[PistolPaknMama]

Thanks, Boomer!

[dennisw]

I am not an Enterprise customer — I have already put Win 11 on two laptops in a clean installation. I like it. And one HP laptop is connecting much better/wirelessly/as fast as by Ethernet cable due to Win-11 installing the latest driver, that HP kept saying while in Win-10, that I did not need.

fwiw ...this is an Intel chip for wireless

[rarestia]

I 100% understand. Like I said, I’ve acted in a consulting role for many years, and I’ve seen much of this equipment first hand. We’ve worked closely with a lot of these industries to provide solutions to prevent issues, but we’ve also had some organizations asks how we can network or otherwise make these machines accessible remotely, and the answer is consistently, “what is your tolerance for risk?”

[Wonder Warthog]

"Like I said, I’ve acted in a consulting role for many years, and I’ve seen much of this equipment first hand. We’ve worked closely with a lot of these industries to provide solutions to prevent issues..."

Well, I gotta say that I am emphatically not on the computer side of the equation....I am on the "big expensive hardware gotta run" end of the stick, mostly as a LONG-suffering user.

But it seems to me that there is a different solution that Microsoft can and should do that would tap every existing version of and installation of Windows as a continuing stream of revenue, AND solve the security problem as well.

Suppose Microsoft was to offer "version specific" virtual machines that run on current hardware. IF a business needs to run Windows XP, they license the Windows XP "VM". That "VM" emulates Windows XP with time/year-appropriate drivers that can support the aging "big expensive hardware". Need to run Windows 3.1? License the Win31 VM. Windows 7, likewise.

[SauronOfMordor]

Businesses are not going to mess with what works for something which is essentially in Beta release.

I can see a slow shift over the next two years as individuals get their laptops upgraded, and then servers over the next couple years.

[daniel1212]

"Thanks. I use “open shell” on my w-10 devices. I haven’t tried to use it on w-11."

Should work, and thank God we have such! Without knowing coding we would lack the wealth of easy customization and wealth of free software to do such.

Like over 200 tweaks available in in Ultimate Windows Tweaker 4 for Windows 10 From the Windows club.

Add to this Winaero features of the Winaero Tweaker

Then there is Right-Click Extender (add items to many right click menus) , and T-Clock Redux and what you mentioned, Open Shell (https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu/archive/master.zip)

An menu in the image you saw was a result of Right-Click Extender but here is a more recent screenshot: