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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.

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[-] DarkSideOfTheMoon@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago

I don’t get why people prefer to go to an unsafe version of windows instead of trying Linux. Nowadays there is many friendly distro.

[-] polle@feddit.org 11 points 11 hours ago

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.

[-] TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz 2 points 2 hours ago

I hated when software didn't work on Windows. After switching to Linux my mouse, keyboard, monitor, hard drive, OS, and software don't work 😂

(this comment is a joke I love 🐧)

[-] NateNate60@lemmy.world 10 points 15 hours ago

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.

[-] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 11 points 10 hours ago

This already exists, and it doesn't cost $60. What you want is the Windows 10 IoT LTSC Edition.

https://massgrave.dev/.

(Brought to you by Carl's, Jr.)

[-] Psythik@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago

I use this on my DJ laptop. It's nice because it doesn't constantly bother you with bullshit, and is extremely stable.

Anyone still stuck on 10 who isn't ready for Linux just yet should give LTSC a try. You'll probably like it. It's not going away anytime soon, either, because it is used in mission critical things like ATMs and cash registers that need to just work without being bothered with constant updates and reboots nor being bombarded with ads.

[-] MehBlah@lemmy.world 7 points 14 hours ago

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.

[-] morphballganon@mtgzone.com 2 points 11 hours ago

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

[-] NateNate60@lemmy.world 2 points 11 hours ago

People who build their own computers, AKA the group most likely to complain about this

[-] jaxxed@lemmy.world 3 points 15 hours ago

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.

[-] Kailn@lemmy.myserv.one 5 points 14 hours ago

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 2025

[-] SleafordMod@feddit.uk 18 points 20 hours ago

Nobody 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.

[-] BCBoy911@lemmy.ca 12 points 15 hours ago

Agree for a main computer but there's no risk when using Windows 7 or XP on an offline machine.

[-] filcuk@lemmy.zip 8 points 10 hours ago

If it were offline machines, then they wouldn't be on these statistics

[-] SleafordMod@feddit.uk 5 points 15 hours ago

Fair point, I guess some people might want to do that to play old games or something like that.

[-] rozodru@piefed.social 10 points 20 hours ago

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.

[-] BilSabab@lemmy.world 8 points 20 hours ago

It's almost as if there's a demand for meat and potatoes OS.

[-] radix@lemmy.world 189 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)
  • 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.

[-] ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 20 points 22 hours ago

Could it be that something is spoofing a Win7 signature?

[-] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 6 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

I personally just edited the registry to stop my Win10 upgrading to 11. If it fails, it's Manjaro time.

[-] kylian0087@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 20 hours ago

Manjaro might not be the best starting point tbh. So many better choices.

[-] Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 3 points 15 hours ago

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.

[-] xep@discuss.online 1 points 20 hours ago

If you disable TPM in your bios, W11 won't install, nor update if it is already installed.

[-] Natanael@infosec.pub 2 points 20 hours ago

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)

[-] frongt@lemmy.zip 13 points 1 day ago

Still, it's unusual for that to happen.

[-] The_Decryptor@aussie.zone 14 points 1 day ago

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.

[-] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 25 points 1 day ago

I think that it's a possibility for the rest of the world.

[-] carrylex@lemmy.world 40 points 1 day ago
[-] Luci@lemmy.ca 84 points 1 day ago

It’s okay, Windows 10 will be the last version of Windows you’ll need!!!

[-] Pat_Riot@lemmy.today 84 points 1 day ago

It was. Linux Mint has been beautiful since I switched last year. Certainly nicer than windows.

[-] Marshezezz 27 points 1 day ago

My laptop runs so much better now with Mint after getting rid of windows

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[-] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 4 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

True enough, I changed to LMDE from 10 2 yeaes aho. Started on 3.1 (from MS DOS)

[-] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 61 points 1 day ago

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.

[-] TaterTot@piefed.social 31 points 1 day ago

Year of the Windows 7 Desktop?!

[-] mormund@feddit.org 25 points 1 day ago

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.

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[-] tio_bira@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

Tbf proton evolving fast as he doing, soon i won't even will need windows beside my workplace notebook

[-] hornywarthogfart@sh.itjust.works 3 points 14 hours ago

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.

[-] tio_bira@lemmy.world 2 points 11 hours ago

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

[-] hornywarthogfart@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

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.

[-] prole 3 points 14 hours ago

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.

[-] spicehoarder@lemmy.zip 2 points 14 hours ago

Using wine and Proton, I've been able to play old windows games that haven't worked on real windows for over two decades.

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this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2025
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