I've been considering switching some apps that only run on Windows 10 and 11 to 64-bit. Unlike Windows 7 which had a good percentage of 32-bit users. Windows 10 had much fewer. Microsoft stopped allowing manufacturers to bundle the 32-bit version of Windows 10 with new systems 3 years ago. Windows 10 32-bit is below .1% of Steam installs (note that this is not an accurate measure of overall PC use, just gamers).
So, I'm wondering who here is still running Windows 10 32-bit and what people's thoughts are on this.
I may setup the platform to report in the Windows OS bit depth and version of users as updates are checked for to get a sense of what our actual userbase is as well. This wouldn't be tied to directly IP addresses or anything either and be done on just a summary rolling basis. I'd use a one way hash on the IP addresses discarded on a daily basis or similar to ensure someone checking for updates lots of times per day wouldn't be counted multiple times.
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I think it is a good step to add, an opt out option, for sending some system information back to PortableApps.
Then instead of guessing, you'd get the actual data.
It will be appreciated if you could make a report about the data (Or if it is available, I'd be happy to create one and share on the forum quarterly).
The OS version and whether or not the TLS patch has been applied on XP/Vista is already sent so the appropriate download server can be redirected to. Likely will add displaying appropriate apps in the app store based on OS as well. Just hadn't added in 32 vs 64 vs ARM64 as the server hasn't needed it yet. And it isn't stored, just used transiently.
Posting the data for the community and developers is a good idea. It wouldn't be 'exact' as we don't keep a unique per-install ID like Steam does, for instance. More a close enough but still rough estimate based on daily update checks.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I think, as you said, 32-bit operating systems are very rare nowadays, especially if we are talking about Windows 10.
If a software supports multiple Windows versions I could understand, but if it supports only Windows 10 it might be an idea to incorporate only the 64-bit version. An example might be WhyNotWin11.
Another idea might be to give the user the ability to decide during the installation phase which versions to install (32-bit, 64-bit, or both). The problem is that during the upgrade phase the user could set a different configuration.
Are you referring to any particular software?
Obviously I think an option to disable such statistical data is preferable. Especially to avoid too much resource consumption (OT: Lately I notice quite a lot of laptop battery consumption by keeping PortableApps.com Platform running).
Of course, as always, thank you for the valuable work you do.
The "stats" are literally only sent as you check for an update or select to download a file. Selecting to download a file passes along the OS version and TLS status (for XP/Vista) as part of a simple TLS encrypted GET request so the server knows which download server to redirect you to. That's the extent of the "stats". This isn't like a telemetry thing. I'm just suggesting to add in the bit depth and then keep them on a rolling daily basis with a one way hashed IP address (also disposed of daily) to determine a rough-ish percentage of Windows 10 32-bit users.
It's been this way for years. It consumes no resources while the platform is running.
I'm thinking about secondary less-used browsers like Opera GX or maybe apps like WhyNotWin11.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
If it can help in development, I'm all for it.
As for the battery consumption maybe it depends on some other software running, I will do further checks.
