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.
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)