Nearly 43 percent of millions of devices studied by asset management provider Lansweeper are unable to upgrade and most of it is because they lack a TPM-equipped CPU. TPM 2.0 was released in October 2014 so any computer older than that is out of luck.

Lansweeper said 42.76 percent of the estimated 27 million PCs it tested across 60,000 organizations failed the CPU test, which is better than the 57.26 percent in its last test a year ago. Altogether 71.5 percent of the PCs failed the RAM test and 14.66 percent the TPM test.

There is not a short supply of PC chips any more and it is a good time to upgrade with computer makers seeking out demand to attract customers. IDC thinks that Windows 11 use will take off next year as corporates start to consider replacing aging systems. Generally, enterprises wait for 18 months after an OS was released before they adopt it.

Lansweeper shows adoption rates for the latest OS are improving, running on 1.44 percent of computers versus 0.52 percent in January. This means the latest incarnation has overtaken Windows 8 in the popularity stakes but remains behind market share for Windows 7, despite that software going end of life in January 2020.