Sat Nad declares Windows 11 has a billion users – just don't bother asking for details
- Reference: 1769693820
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/01/29/windows_11_billion/
- Source link:
As ever, the devil is in the details. [1]Nadella did not say whether this was a daily active user figure, how many came from new hardware versus upgrades, or the mix of users. He also did not say how many devices were still on Windows 10 or had enrolled in the company's Extended Security Updates program.
What he did say was that the figure represented a 45 percent year-on-year increase.
[2]
A bit of back-of-the-envelope math shows that Windows 11 has reached this milestone faster than Windows 10, although there are a number of factors that need to be considered. The year-on-year increase, for example, was likely driven in part by the end of support for many versions on Windows 10 in October, prompting a large number of customers to move to the new operating system.
[3]
Windows 11 would also have reached the milestone far faster if it were not for the operating system's infamous hardware compatibility requirements, which prevented many Windows 10 devices from accepting the update and necessitated replacement hardware.
[4]Windows 11, not AI, kick-started the PC upgrade cycle
[5]Win10 still clings to over 40% of devices weeks after Microsoft pulls support
[6]AI bubble inflates Microsoft CEO pay to $96.5M
[7]Windows 10 refuses to go gentle into that good night
Microsoft [8]blamed Windows Phone for not hitting its self-imposed two-year target for a billion Windows 10 devices by 2018. Windows 11 did not have that particular millstone dragging it down, but instead had the dual brakes of hardware compatibility preventing upgrades and general user apathy toward the flagship operating system.
The end of support for Windows 10 has forced the vast majority of holdouts to either upgrade to Windows 11 or stick with the Windows 10 Extended Security Updates (ESU) program. Microsoft has not released figures for the latter. However, several industry watchers told The Register that enterprises had likely already factored in hardware replacement or ESU costs ahead of the October 2025 deadline for the end of free Windows 10 updates.
Still, the milestone will be welcomed by Microsoft and anyone looking for Windows 11-related news. After all, it [9]hasn't been the greatest start for the Windows ecosystem in 2026 thanks to multiple out-of-band releases following January's Patch Tuesday security update. ®
Get our [10]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Investor/earnings/FY-2026-Q2/press-release-webcast
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aXuSfBlWRpXa-EiSsOkBnQAAAFA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aXuSfBlWRpXa-EiSsOkBnQAAAFA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/20/windows_11_pc_refresh/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/04/windows_10_eol/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/22/microsoft_nadella_pay/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/02/windows_10_statcounter/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2016/07/15/microsoft_wont_hit_billion_win10_devices/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/26/microsoft_probes_windows_11_boot/
[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The real reasons?
W11 offers no real advantages over W10 for the average and many corporate users.
Canges to the desktop and added spyware and adverts have put off many people.
Trying to talk up an operating system that's not as good as its' predecessor.
Re: The real reasons?
I wonder if the apparent growth is due to the per-core licensing introduced for running Win11 in a VM
Does he count a 12-core VM instance as 12 Win11 users, perhaps?
Tired
Posting anon because it may hurt my career.
I'm a sysadmin in my late 40's. Always have been a sysadmin.
I have spent an astonishing amount of the time I have on the earth waiting for software updates to complete.
This really started to hurt when Microsoft started pushing feature updates that only benefited them and their partners in with security updates.
I have dutifully made sure our office real estate is on Windows 11 Pro, but when it comes to my home laptop I'm just... tired.
I'm tired of fighting off Microsoft trying to slip its fingers into all my holes.
I can't bring myself to hit the go button on an OS full of ads and partner recommendations and AI features I never asked for, that takes far more clicks to do the things I do than its predecessor did.
I can't look my children square in the eye and tell them that Windows 11 is better for their machines.
I'm making room on my machine to install something else. Windows 10 will sit in the corner until it is needed. I'm going back to Linux.
Re: Tired
You're in the same space as me other than I'm infosec not sysadmin.
I've several home machines. The laptop is running W11 but my desktop failed the W11 criteria. It was far too good to throw away (and that was before the current chip price nonsense) and I have that running Mint now. Is it perfect, no. Linux can be a pain sometimes. But for everything outside of games I'm pretty happy with it. And very much enjoying being in control of my own property again.
The laptop will also go to Linux when MS decides that the invasiveness of W11 just isn't delivering enough shareholder value for them or enough coprolite numbers/data. Things that don't work on Linux I will live without.
The rest of the family is pretty much a Mac operation.
What will take a bit longer is peeling ourselves away from 365 but it's all possible with a little time and maybe a little money.
Nadella getting his information from the same place as West Midlands Police.
Crapilot.
Statistics, statistics and [redacted] lies
I have a Lenovo laptop. It was sold with W11 so is probably in SatNads figures. It was re-purposed with Linux (Rocky 9.7) on Day 1 and will never run W11 or W12 or...
I suspect that a lot of other people her will have devices that were sold with W11 and have never run it in anger.
Re: Statistics, statistics and [redacted] lies
Yes likewise...It was cheaper to buy a new lenovo laptop from a reseller with Win 11 pro than to spec the same device on the Lenovo website without any OS.
Mint was installed as soon as I had checked it powered up ok.
He did not answer the question why it took five years.
If Windows 11 would be better all around, faster UI, more logical UI, better response time, less bugs, it would have been within two years. Without the brute "we don't give you a choice" method.
Yet I only see three core features which are better: SMB-Compression, robocopy /iorate and nested-V for AMD. If you are picky you can find other details which got better, but they are not worth mentioning since the improvement (for me) is too small. Instead I have more and more new bugs Windows 10 / Server 2019 don't have which I have to work around.
They managed to make Windows 11 more hated than Vista and Windows 8.0 combined.
Nadella is really worse than Ballmer and Gates.
Sad Nads
Desperate to talk up revenues to avoid the banks getting sniffy about his datacentre loans and OpenAI bubble exposure, I suspect..