- Dell’s COO dropped some interesting information in an earnings call
- Jeffrey Clarke noted that Windows 11 lags significantly behind Windows 10 for post-support deadline migration
- Windows 11 is off the pace by about 10% to 12%, but that’s not surprising for a few reasons
Dell has made it clear that Windows 11 isn’t doing nearly as well as Windows 10 did when it comes to people migrating away from those respective Microsoft operating systems after their support deadlines.
The Register reports that Dell’s Chief Operating Officer (COO), Jeffrey Clarke, commented on Windows 11’s lackluster progress in this regard during an earnings call earlier this week.
Clarke said: “We haven’t completed the Windows 11 transition. In fact, if you were to look at it relative to the previous OS end of support, we’re 10-12 points behind at that point with Windows 11 than we were the previous generation.”
That’s a fancy way of saying that compared to Windows 10 when Windows 7 went out of support – we can presumably discount Windows 8 as part of the transition to Windows 10, since it never gathered much of a user base in the first place – Windows 11 is well behind the end of support for Windows 10 itself (last month). In fact, Windows 11 is about 10% to 12% behind the migration levels for Windows 10.
There could of course be a number of reasons for the lack of progress compared to Windows 10, but the biggest stumbling block is that Windows 11 excludes a lot of older PCs with its more demanding system requirements (a topic that has been a source of frustration and controversy for some time now).
As Clarke pointed out, about 500 million PCs can’t run Windows 11, and while some of them might be upgraded to do so (with a new CPU or a TPM module), most probably won’t (and in the case of laptops, it’s probably impossible to upgrade anyway).
Dell has had a robust year so far for PC sales in 2025 – as of Q3 sales were up ‘mid-to-high single digits’, we’re told, so around 7-8% probably – but Clarke notes that next year will be different.
The PC maker predicts that sales will be flat in 2026, while it considers it ‘booming’ – and while that might not make much sense as a choice of words, the COO sees this through the lens of memory price increases and related difficulties with the cost of components. (RAM and SSDs mainly, and also to some extent standalone GPUs which have video RAM).
As we’ve clearly seen over the past month, these supply issues and price increases are driving up costs for PC manufacturers at the moment – the rise in RAM prices is extreme to say the least – and so it’s inevitable that computers will become more expensive. Therefore, simply maintaining sales levels in 2026 is seen as a win, with additional incentives such as the long-awaited rise in AI PCs (Copilot+ laptops) not enough to combat the various component headwinds.
Of course, a slower migration to Windows 11 PCs doesn’t help sales either, as people stick with their Windows 10 machines or may choose a different path altogether (like Linux or indeed macOS).
Analysis: Some alarms, but no surprises
In short, while Dell’s sales numbers are currently good, Windows 11 adoption is not, and it lags significantly behind Windows 10 at the same stage of its post-support timeline that tracks Dell’s statistics.
It’s really not good news for Windows 11 – but it’s not surprising either. Why not? First, because Windows 11’s general lack of popularity – whether it’s people being prevented from upgrading due to the jump in required hardware specification, or just people not liking it that much – is nothing new. Windows 11 has been well outside of Windows 10’s relative adoption levels throughout its lifetime.
And second, Microsoft did something very different with Windows 10 when its End of Life rolled around last month, at least in the consumer sphere. Namely, for the first time ever, extended support was offered to consumers (more or less) for free (there is a catch attached, but it’s not a big deal in my opinion, and it’s not economical). With a free year of additional support available, it means Windows 10 users can get security updates until October 2026.
And in turn, that means any worries they might have about what to do with their Windows 10 computer that isn’t compatible with Windows 11 can be postponed until next year. In short, they have another year to think about either buying a new Windows 11 PC to replace their existing system, or perhaps upgrading their current computer to support Windows 11 (or abandoning the Microsoft ecosystem altogether).
This must surely be a factor in Dell’s observed migration lag here, and given that, it may be the case that the pace of the transition to Windows 11 remains slow until October 2026 – which may also factor into Dell’s PC sales predictions for next year.
In theory, there could therefore be a greater increase in migration this time next year. In practice, yes, we’ll see, and some of how this plays out may be wrapped up in how well Microsoft can push forward with its big push with AI in Windows 11 – a direction that’s proven quite controversial with the existing user base of the operating system.
The best computers for all budgets
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews and opinions in your feeds. Be sure to click the Follow button!
And of course you can too follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, video unboxings, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp also.
