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.
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?
This guy analyzes!