The Windows 7 Renaissance? StatCounter shows surge in usage

StatCounter’s latest OS share data shows a bizarre spike in Windows 7 usage: globally up from 2.04% in August to 9.15% in October, with Asia hitting 17.74%. The strangest case? Singapore, where Windows 7 allegedly commands 91.53% — overtaking both Windows 10 and 11.

Released in 2009 and officially unsupported since 2023, Windows 7’s sudden “renaissance” has sparked speculation. Reddit users suggest data centers spinning up massive numbers of Windows 7 VMs may be skewing the stats. Others joke someone booted a million legacy machines just to mess with the graph.

StatCounter reports usage by percentage, not absolute numbers — so even a concentrated VM deployment could distort the global picture.

(Japanese article) https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/be4dbd5406cda9a6be7277e75edeafd909e232e9

4 points | by Stasshe 19 hours ago

2 comments

  • chasing0entropy 8 hours ago
    I imagine people have realized there have been no improvements in windows 10/11 but in reality I think it has to do with changes to Windows 10's activation checks. Windows 7 would also be almost impossible to post- patch with AI / LLM garbage which actually makes me want to pull out my old VLK discs..
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    • Stasshe 8 hours ago
      these days, people,especially shareholders tend to think AI is better than sinear, old hand engineer.

      The lower limit of product quality has risen, but the upper limit has fallen.

      what a tragedy.

  • iefbr14 18 hours ago
    It is probably just a rise in the number of automated scrapers/bots that use a windows 7-like user agent.
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    • Stasshe 8 hours ago
      Yeah, defanately. But why don't use Linux? that's the better option,I think.