As the article notes, the increase seems to be driven mainly by users in Asia, where recycling and reusing older hardware is quite common. I wonder if third-party companies are offering extended security patches there, which could make affordable second-hand Windows 7 machines more appealing for people who just need them for browsing or light tasks. It would certainly make sense given recent fiascos and Microsoft’s current stance on AI, especially with generative AI being used to develop system-level code.
I still have my old Win7 pro disk with unlimited installs :p
I didn’t think i would ever use it, but I’m also not ever gonna use win11, so maybe upgrading from 10 to 7 will be my plan for my windows needs if they are both gonna be insecure anyway.
7 is just the best OS Microsoft has made, it’s been downhill since.
A friend of mine was still on win7 and just recently made the switch to linux. In the end the issue was that most of the software stopped working.
They should make a Windows version called Windows 10P which is the same as Windows 10 but only the bare-bones necessities and no extra crap or required online services, and sell it for $59.99 (seeing that Windows is already de facto freeware). That’s probably an order of magnitude than what they make from intrusive advertising anyway to a single user over the lifespan of a computer.
This already exists, and it doesn’t cost $60. What you want is the Windows 10 IoT LTSC Edition.
(Brought to you by Carl’s, Jr.)
Computers that are too new for Windows 7 come with Windows 10 preinstalled on them though. Who would buy an extra copy? You can debloat Windows 10 with a debloater tool
People who build their own computers, AKA the group most likely to complain about this
No way they will do that. The value for microsoft these days is in harvesting their victims info and forcing them in to their walled garden.
Walled garden? Windows? Do you even understand what a “walled garden” is?
They have been trying to force a microsoft accounts on everyone. I know what a walled garden is and when Microsoft looks at apples they are jealous. Remember S mode? The shitbox machines microsoft pushed out that could only use their app store. That is the end goal for them. They just can’t sell it.
My current problem is keeping copilot and recall off of our public computers. People are using them and want them clear of spyware and intrusive monitoring. You can not really get rid of any of the microsoft software since they now cache it on the computer. Anytime someone new logs in it puts 365 and copilot on their profile. If you delete it from the cache its back the next update cycle. They have begun putting notepad and basic programs in the cache. So you can’t just kill it by making the cache path inaccessible. They are gearing up to close off all holes and force their app store onto everyone. They are working toward a walled garden where everyone has a microsoft account.
So maybe you don’t know what a walled garden is? You don’t understand that they have everything in place to lock out any third party software. They have recall, a huge security risk to train up their AI’s. You can’t believe anything they say about it. I know this because I’ve been around since the dos floppies had the IBM logo on them.
They have a unmanageable cache of software downloading without consent that uses their app store and if you kill it with a gpo you start having problems with basic functions. They killed wsus because it could be used to lock out their garbage. Despite operating in a domain environment I still see messages on accounts urging people to link a microsoft account.
So please tell me about what I know or don’t know.
You don’t know that a walled garden requires them to lock you in to only install from their store, while windows lets you install anything you want however you want. While S mode exists, it’s never going to be the only mode because people need legacy win32 programs and all sorts of custom programs. Microsoft know that removing that ability will destroy Windows, which is why they haven’t.
Copilot has options to not collect data etc. copilot and recall are completely optional - you don’t have to use them. They’re not “spyware”.
I’ve been around since floppy disks too. You should know better than what you just wrote if you have been around this long.
Your username is a downright lie and you sound like you haven’t actually used windows since 7. Keep drinking the microsoft propaganda, you are clearly the target audience after all.
It would be of lower value to them without the data-gathering and the AI injection.
The data makes them money. The AI helps th justify their investment, but also gives them data to ad to their models.
So more ppl are re-purposing old, legacy win7 machines despite security risk…
Completely clueless about anything linux or floss in that matter wether even if there where lighter distros with better hardware support & enough apps for everyday office needs & more.Like win7 can’t even run any UWP apps, photoshop or steam anymore.
It’s great livin’ in 2025Nobody should be using old versions of Windows that no longer get security updates. Either switch to Linux and install all of the latest security updates, or enable the coming year of security updates on Windows 10, or run Windows 11.
Agree for a main computer but there’s no risk when using Windows 7 or XP on an offline machine.
If it were offline machines, then they wouldn’t be on these statistics
Fair point, I guess some people might want to do that to play old games or something like that.
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within the past month? what all these people in Asia suddenly found a stockpile of machines with Win7 on them and all, collectively, decided “yeah lets just use these”?
I don’t buy it.
It’s almost as if there’s a demand for meat and potatoes OS.
- Windows 7 was used to browse more web pages on a subset of sites that use the Statcounter plugin, and mostly in one area of the world.
But that doesn’t make a good headline.
Could it be that something is spoofing a Win7 signature?
I personally just edited the registry to stop my Win10 upgrading to 11. If it fails, it’s Manjaro time.
Manjaro might not be the best starting point tbh. So many better choices.
It’s not that I’m disagreeing with you. I’m just not agreeing with you.
I personally think that (as unpopular an opinion as it may be) Flatpak’s largely make the choice of first distro irrelevant. The weakness in Manjaro is that you either risk using the AUR or stay on old versions of the software. Or with Mint/Ubuntu/etc… you either risk adding random repos to your sources list or you use older versions of the software.
Either way, you run the risk of a new person mucking up their system with a bad repo or a bad aur package.
The alternative, using flatpaks, largely solves both issues for when you need newer versions of a certain software, and are dead simple to install/remove/update, etc…
And I say this as someone who was super skeptical of flatpak’s for a very very long time.
If you disable TPM in your bios, W11 won’t install, nor update if it is already installed.
FYI if you have disk encryption enabled you need to pause/disable it first (assuming you’re using automatic unlock using the TPM, which usually is the default)
Still, it’s unusual for that to happen.
Ehh, bots have always presented nonsense UAs to servers. And since modern browsers hard-code the OS version in the UA string, pretending to be an old browser on an old OS could be a (probably ineffectual) way to bypass fingerprinting.
I think that it’s a possibility for the rest of the world.
Thanks Microsoft spokesman.
Why is it that these scores are taken at face value until a corporation doesn’t like them? What you think 4% of a random set of servers suddenly started using Windows 7 to bot pages to drum up Windows 7 support?
Look at the data: https://gs.statcounter.com/windows-version-market-share/desktop/asia/#monthly-202408-202509
Or more specifically https://gs.statcounter.com/windows-version-market-share/desktop/singapore/#monthly-202408-202509
All the data is nice and smooth, slow rises or declines, as usual.
And then all of a sudden in July and only ins Singapore, Windows 7 goes from <2% to 92%. All other asian countries stay about the same.
Does this sound likely to you that 90% of users uninstall Win10 and Win11 in Singapore to install Win7 and all that in a span of just two months?
Or is it more likely that there’s some bug (or some botnet) causing false stats?
It’s okay, Windows 10 will be the last version of Windows you’ll need!!!
True enough, I changed to LMDE from 10 2 yeaes aho. Started on 3.1 (from MS DOS)
It was. Linux Mint has been beautiful since I switched last year. Certainly nicer than windows.
My laptop runs so much better now with Mint after getting rid of windows
The difference in fan speed is always impressive
Yeah it’s nice not having my laptop get scalding hot just during the fifteen minute long start up as well. I’m loving the efficiency
Yep, Bazzite has been great for me on my gaming PC. Never going back.
I’m thinking about mint vs Ubuntu. Got any thoughts about which is easier for a tech-illiterate moron like me?
If you want my two cents, Mint’s default Desktop Environment (Cinnamon) is far more windows-like compared to Ubuntu, and Mint includes more quality of life applications for less tech savvy people compared to Ubuntu out of the box. (Mainly graphical apps for updates, backups, disk management, etc…)
I first tried Ubuntu when I was starting my Linux journey, but it didn’t really click until I used Mint. Save yourself some pain and go for Mint first :)
Edit: Also, Ubuntu contains ads for things like their “Ubuntu Pro” update service, and they’re known to commit some tomfuckery when it comes to installing apps and compatibility (see Snap Controversy)
Snap Controversy
Just today at work other team wrote a bunch of ready-made images on their SBCs. In about 10% of them snap shat the bed by corrupting one json file which rendered their environment unusable. They did it in a pretty stupid way by writing an sd card, inserting it into SBC, booting up and disconnecting power after very short visual confirmation that system gave some signs of life. And snap was doing whatever it’s doing in the background. So I had the pleasure of removing said json-file and reinstalling all their crap manually on those failed units.
So, maybe not strictly speaking fault of snapd, but yet another problem it caused for me without any practical reason other than the environment they chose just uses snap instead of something more robust.
Raspberry pi’s didn’t even have power buttons until this latest version. I fully expect to be able to unplug an SBC at any point with very low chances of corruption. It’s not like they’re designed for that, but they don’t really give you much choice. Having 10% fail like that is ridiculous.
In fact, I’ve done it hundreds of times and never had an issue.
Linux mint is the loveliest distro. Apart from desktop shock you will get in Ubuntu coming from windows, it also has some controversial decisions. If you use Debian version of mint (LMDE), it is more stable than Ubuntu, which is already rock solid like pyramid of Giza (cf windows).
I’ve been around the block with linux. I’m no expert but I have used it since the 90’s off and on. And I always go back to Mint. It’s by far the best out of the box. Easy to set up and very intuitive. The only thing I’ve ever had to configure after the install, is sometimes I have to use a proprietary video driver (not hard to change). My Dell 2in1 will not go into tablet mode with the open drivers. You can test drive it from a USB stick before committing to it.
Ubuntu was created as supposedly the first Linux “made for people” of course there were other version of Linux trying to do that but Ubuntu also had funding, including for advertising (it was created by a billionaire Mark Shuttleworth) which helped.
Mint took Ubuntu and shaped it further to be even simpler.
I think Ubuntu tried to replicate UI of MacOS while Mint tried to look more like Windows.
I personally did not use Mint, but from the comments you can see that it has a significant following.
I used Ubuntu for some time, but stopped over decade ago as I got very frustrated that they frequently introduced instability (note that since Mint is based on Ubuntu it is not completely immune to that), though I hope that things improved and now Ubuntu is more stable.
I’ve found Mint to be more stable compared to my Ubuntu installations because the Mint team doesn’t include the fluff and bad design decisions when making releases.
(Like never requiring snap)
I can confirm Mint, specifically with the Cinnamon Desktop environment. Although I would also recommend Debian with the Cinnamon Desktop. Ubuntu has been making some pretty weird choices
latelyfor a while now. And while Mint has been trying to move it’s upstream straight to Debian, they haven’t done so yet.There’s Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE). Does that count?
Surely it does. I also have a secret dream that they will make LMDE the default Linux Mint. No sense basing Ubuntu when they are stripping away everything ubuntu
There is a rational reason for it - some types of software expect Ubuntu during their installation and usage (especially game server panels for some reason), and I’d imagine they wouldn’t work properly if Mint was closer to Debian than Ubuntu.
+1 on Mint. Ubuntu is fine, but things like Ubuntu’s Snaps can cause headaches that just don’t exist elsewhere.
I landed on Mint after Ubuntu gave me some grief right after installing it and I wasn’t in the mood to chase it around. Mint installed super easy and has given me no trouble at all. It does what I do with a computer just fine.
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Right, cause it’s just too late if you didn’t do it early enough to be cool. Guess I’ll just go submit to Microsoft then, I was too late, I can never be a real Linux user like you.
Possibly from people booting up 15 year old laptops to see if they‘re still running so they can install linux on them before trying it on the big machine. Yes, this is my made up narrative but I believe that more than in a Win7 comeback.
Year of the Windows 7 Desktop?!
Don’t have a link to the thread on Mastodon, but it was only in Singapore. So it is likely a troll or some glitch.
Not from Mastodon, but from looking at the map for September:
Here’s a link to the rest of the map You’ll have to mouse over the different countries here, but regardless of whatever the heck is happening in Singapore, windows 7 is still sitting between 15-5% in other countries across Asia. and 10 is still nowhere near the “safe” levels for EoL coming up.
Tbf proton evolving fast as he doing, soon i won’t even will need windows beside my workplace notebook
Switched to Linux a couple years ago and at this point it is rare that a game doesn’t “just work” and even rarer when it still won’t work after trying other versions of proton in the Steam compatibility settings for the game.
Depending on if there is a specific game you know doesn’t work that is a deal breaker for you, it might be fine at this point to switch. Just throwing that out there. You may not need more compatibility than what is available.
How moddings tool like MO2 and the mods from nexus are behaving on Linux ?
Also, PCVR, playing HALF LIFE ALYX, Arizona Sunshine, OpenMW VR are huge deal breakers for me
I don’t think I’ve actually played any of those so I can’t speak to them but hopefully someone else can. There is a website you can check compatibility on although I don’t know if it includes non-games and/or tools. Arizona Sunshine looks like it’s fine: https://www.protondb.com/search?q=arizona+sunshine
If it’s gold or higher it’ll almost certainly play without issue. Silver will very likely play if you tweak the compatibility settings to change proton versions (go to game options in steam > compatibility > change the version. Bronze is hit or miss, you’ll likely be able to get it to work but it might require more work. Borked is of course…borked.
Anyways, someone else can probably answer those games specifically but if not you can use the website to check.
Yeah I think a lot of people don’t understand how far it’s come. Often even games that Steam lists as “unsupported” will work with some very light tinkering.
Using wine and Proton, I’ve been able to play old windows games that haven’t worked on real windows for over two decades.
