How much? A shocking number of people don’t know what Windows version they have – but this doesn’t mean they aren’t confident they could upgrade to Windows 11 right now
- We asked our readers about their Windows 11 plans
- Plenty of users are confident they could easily upgrade their devices
- Not all users have the RAM capacity, or know their RAM at all
As Microsoft‘s official Windows 10 End of Life comes ever nearer (October 14, 2025 for those of you who don’t already know!), any stragglers must soon migrate to Windows 11.
Well, we say stragglers – but our exclusive statistics show over half (53%) of Windows users are still using the older software, potentially leaving them at risk of cyberattacks and other issues when support ends.
Our Future survey of 1,027 users found just 43% say they have made the upgrade – so what is causing the delay?
Optimistic outlooks
Well, simply put – our research found it could partly be because many users simply don’t know that they need to upgrade.
The majority of people (55%) know ‘exactly what version’ they’re on, but that leaves 23% who are ‘fairly sure’, 10% who ‘could make an educated guess’, and a further 12% who aren’t sure at all.
(We’re also pretty sure our audience at TechRadar Pro is obviously pretty tech-savvy, so the real percentage of those who are unsure is likely to be much higher…)
Most of those surveyed (61%) said they own two devices or more in their home, and 53% say all of their PCs/Laptops meet the requirements for Windows 11 upgrades – leaving 28% of respondents falling short of the requirements in some capacity.
The survey did find a bit of uncertainty though, with 14% not knowing the Windows 11 system requirements, and a further 4% not knowing their device system requirements. This is where the optimism comes in.
For those who don’t know, the RAM requirement for Windows 11 is 4GB – and just over half (53%) of those asked weren’t sure how much RAM their device has, but 40% said they were sure – although that’s not quite the whole picture.
We asked those 40% how much RAM they have, and about 1 in 4 respondents gave us an inconceivable answer – either far too high, or far too low.
Most were ridiculously optimistic, like 1TB, which even industrial set-ups would be jealous of, so it’s really not clear how many of us are ready or able to upgrade.
While Windows 11 adoption may finally be on the rise, there are still plenty of users yet to make the change. Microsoft is still urging users to update though, as the firm has pushed endless AI features into desktops and laptops across the globe to try and entice users to switch.
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We asked our readers about their Windows 11 plans Plenty of users are confident they could easily upgrade their devices Not all users have the RAM capacity, or know their RAM at all As Microsoft‘s official Windows 10 End of Life comes ever nearer (October 14, 2025 for those of…
