Agreed, there is no objectively perfect way of measuring this stuff. My point mainly is that the author of the article picked one data point, took it out for context and built an entire lie on that. It's very much a "look at this snow - so much for global warming" argument. But also, we keep hearing how much Windows is tanking and yet all the metrics we have show it's actually doing well. Do people like it? No, I don't think they do. Do I personally want to see Windows crash and burn? Yes, at least in it's current form. But for all the frustration and anecdotes it doesn't look like it's going anywhere, and I don't think any decision-makers will be convinced that Windows is failing when all the available stats suggest otherwise.

Statcounter is running on more than a million websites. They track user metadata across these websites.

While this doesn’t give you absolute numbers for everything, it should be enough to notice trends.

Their methodology is on their website.

+1. I ragequit windows when it reinstalled Teams during an OS update, just after i uninstalled it.

I finally kicked Windows after 30 years because I have to use windows 11 for work, and it fails at almost everything an operating system should be. Search doesn't work right. Applications don't work right. Basic UI is buggy and inconsistent. It's the most expensive piece of software I use. Using 2 cores and 7GB of RAM at idle is unacceptable for an operating system. It's the equivalent of running Skyrim all the time in the background. It actively tries to undermine my privacy, and instead of using that data to enhance my UX, it spams targeted ads at me in my fucking taskbar. Windows 11 is basically a SmartTV in terms of privacy and functionality at this point. It actively gets in the way of you using the hardware, and to no tangible benefit. Worse, it's become clear that Microsoft recognizes this, and is actively pursuing and expanding the capabilities, with no intent to make a good OS in the future.

I'm out.

That's probably my main issue with Windows : Its ability to change settings on its own.

I feel like I have almost not control over my OS. It's not a tool that helps me do stuff, it's a dumb assistant that thinks he understands what I'm trying to achieve.

"Oh you plugged a PS5 Dual Sense controller I see, let me switch your microphone to the controller even though you are actively already using another one".

"Oh you put your computer in sleep before going to bed? Let me switch it on In the middle of the night to update, we will call that a mandatory maintenance because you can't disable that feature".

I really need to spend more time on my Linux boot rather than this shitty W10 setup".

Win10 LTSC IOT has support until like 2032, and doesn't have any of that pushy bullshit. It's free to pirate btw.

Windows update are starting to feel like updates to Pixel phones: what horrible shit is coming next?

Every forced update is 5 minutes of hassle for each login. If you work from multiple PCs, it’s a nightmare.

The reason why Windows is pushy is because the average user needs it to be.

Updates would never get installed, unless Microsoft forces them to.

They would lose their files, unless Microsoft pushes OneDrive.

And all of them would blame Microsoft for their own ineptitude.

It is easy for techy people to keep their computer functioning properly. But Windows isn't just used by those people.

📎I see you are nostalgic for your youth and how programs were tools and not spyware to track and target you. Maybe I can help with that 👮‍♀️👮‍♀️👮🏽👮🏽🚓🚓🚁🚁

They're not in denial. They know no one wants it. They all do. They just don't care because pretending like they do is extremely profitable in the fucked up modern economy we live in.

This news from last week: https://www.techradar.com/computing/windows/we-need-to-improve-windows-in-ways-that-are-meaningful-for-people-microsoft-promises-to-fix-windows-11-this-year-and-its-about-time

https://pureinfotech.com/microsoft-windows-11-ai-brakes-copilot-recall/

Note that this article completely buries the lede. This is the last paragraph:

#Enterprise pushback is also influencing decisions#

Separately, enterprise users have pushed back against Copilot in managed environments, prompting the software giant to test options that would allow IT admins to uninstall Copilot more easily on business devices. This indicates that the rethink isn’t just about consumer sentiment but also addresses corporate deployment challenges.

The reason they're having second thoughts is due to enterprise customers, who are the only customers they really care about the opinion of. If it was just home users complaining, they would not be adjusting course.

Yep. Everything that runs in windows 10 runs worse on Windows 11 and y are getting nothing in return. My work PC can barely manage a big spreadsheet now.

Yeah, for a while I was looking for any benefits to moving from win 10 to 11. 7 to 10 had kernel and scheduler improvements, for example.

Only ones I could find were the virtual desktop support (though I had an alternative desktop back in the XP or Vista days that supported that, so not really groundbreaking), and WSL, which I didn't have any use cases for.

Other than that, it was just shit I didn't want. Copilot, recall, more UI changes that don't really add anything (on my work laptop where I didn't have a choice, first thing I did was go into the UI options and undo as much as I could). One of the things I used to like about windows was that it wasn't a mac, but the UI changes look like that's their inspiration. The inspired folks porbably all left already.

It isn't even just the performance and bloat issues or the AI.

As you hinted, Windows 11 made a lot of changes to the UI. I can't think of a single change made which I liked as someone who has had to deal with Windows since before 95. Windows 11 felt like a downgrade from Windows 10.

You've got a lot of managers with purchasing authority who developed a ton of muscle memory on old Windows. The new UI changes have made Windows feel alien enough that you can't use retraining costs as an excuse to keep with Windows.

I think it's more that they're not really making money on Windows anymore. The money is in cloud services like Office 365. So Windows is just being used to push people towards what actually makes Microsoft money, disregarding whether they actually want those services.

Windows 11.1.1 for desktops?

I highly doubt 12% of the pc market got a new laptop for Christmas. But maybe a lot of corporations got new pc's for the 2026 budget to phase out windows 10? I still I find a 12% jump huge, especially in the current RAM shortage climate.

That's how adoption happens. People overwhelmingly don't change the OS that comes with the device.

What generation are they?