by A significant percentage (43 percent) of all business devices still cannot be upgraded to Windows 11 due to hardware requirements imposed by Microsoft, according to new research (opens in new tab) published by IT management company Lansweeper.
TechRadar Pro previously mentionted in March 2022, several million PCs were ineligible for upgrading to Windows 11, in part because their processors did not have Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 (opens in new tab) compatibility, a feature that requires Windows 11.
Lansweeper claims the situation has eased since we last covered its report, with the percentage of devices clearing CPU and TPM requirements increasing by 12%. At this level of development, all devices should be compatible with Windows 11 by 2026.
Windows 11 at work
However, Lansweeper found that only 57% of devices tested had CPUs that met Microsoft’s requirements. More than a third (35%) of workstations tested were not compatible with or had TPM disabled, while virtual machines fared worse – with only 1% supporting or having TPM enabled.
Additionally, the level of deployment of Windows-11-compatible devices seen by Lansweeper still falls short of Windows 10’s end-of-life deadline: October 14, 2025. On that date, Windows 10 will stop receiving critical updates for safety and operations.
This is important as 82% of all Windows devices are still running Windows 10. A steady growth rate is not guaranteed for compatible devices and devices still running the previous version of the operating system will become increasingly vulnerable to malware and ransomware attacks .
This is a large part of why many cyberattacks target healthcare and educational institutions. Organizations neglect to update operating systems, usually to maintain a software or database solution that “just works,” and thus become easy targets for malicious threat actors who value their sensitive personal data.
Only 3% of all Windows users currently use Windows 11. By comparison, 1% of users are still using 21-year-old Windows XP, so it’s fair to say that businesses are still unaware of why they should invest in new material.
As counterproductive as it may seem, especially in a recession, organizations are advised to update the hardware that powers their business for long-term confidence in their security posture and try to save money in other areas such as software solutions.
