It's gotta be Active Dir, right? That's what keeps the businesses around + using Windows OS, which keeps users at home using Windows because it's familiar. It becomes the 'foot in the door' (or trojan horse, YMMV) for the O365 suite, for Exchange...

Plus, because it seems like almost everyone is using AD, you know you can send files in formats they can open and receive via the Office Suite. I've never once hesistated sending a .docx or a .xlsx .... I fully expect any vendor we work with to have the ability to open Microsoft's formats. Sure, Numbers and Sheets built it in, but I assume that's as a business requirement from their partners who needed the ability to open files in their own respective suites.

They've now just about replicated all of the on-prem essentials to the cloud as well, with Intune and Entra replacing most of AD, but just as 'sticky' as ever

The only reason for me still running Windows is for games.

But even that is changing rapidly nowadays.

I'm still on Win10, even though it's EOL. I should upgrade, and if I do, I'll upgrade to some Linux distro, not Win11.

Domain control and group policies, unfortunately. Crucial for enterprises.

running the Office suite, unironically