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.
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.
https://massgrave.dev/.
(Brought to you by Carl’s, Jr.)
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.
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.
Yeah I’m done this guy doesn’t know anything.
You don’t understand freedom then. You’re free to not use windows, and Microsoft are free to make their product how they see fit.
I use windows every single day. I use copilot for work almost every day in multiple different flavours (windows client, vs code, GitHub, and even made a mcp server using copilot agent to use in teams for departments at work to use to get info from various databases), and I know the privacy aspects of it. In windows in copilots settings you can do what I said - turn off learning from your usage, and turn off personalised content using your other data. You can even disable the copilot app from starting on boot the same way you do every other program, through task manager.
Sane with recall - it’s entirely “on device”, encrypted, secure, optional, and isn’t even available on 99.9% of devices as they don’t have an NPU.
There is no need to try and disable/remove them - just don’t use them if you don’t want to. Why do you think you need to disable/remove them?
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
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.