Windows Vista support ends today.

[z3r010]

After April 11, 2017, Windows Vista customers will no longer receive new security updates, non-security hotfixes, free or paid assisted support options, or online technical content updates from Microsoft. Microsoft has provided support for Windows Vista for the past 10 years, but the time has come for us, along with our hardware and software partners, to invest our resources towards more recent technologies so that we can continue to deliver great new experiences.

What happens if I continue to use Windows Vista?

If you continue to use Windows Vista after support has ended, your computer will still work but it might become more vulnerable to security risks and viruses. Internet Explorer 9 is no longer supported, so if your Windows Vista PC is connected to the Internet and you use Internet Explorer 9 to surf the web, you might be exposing your PC to additional threats. Also, as more software and hardware manufacturers continue to optimize for more recent versions of Windows, you can expect to encounter more apps and devices that do not work with Windows Vista.

Microsoft has also stopped providing Microsoft Security Essentials for download on Windows Vista. If you already have Microsoft Security Essentials installed, you'll continue to receive antimalware signature updates for a limited time. However, please note that Microsoft Security Essentials (or any other antivirus software) will have limited effectiveness on PCs that do not have the latest security updates. This means that PCs running Windows Vista will not be secure and will still be at risk for virus and malware.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/22882/windows-vista-end-of-support

 

[Melchior]

lol it was the second worst version of Windows ever, bye!

 

[z3r010]

I disagree, I think it was a great OS, put down mostly by people running in on under-powered hardware or followers of the herd.

 

[SIW2]

Yep, Vista was great.

 

[Barman58]

Vista was the OS that gave us Windows 7, Never forget that - Windows 7 was an Evolution not a revolution

Vista was never designed to run on old Windows XPired era hardware, which was exactly what most, but not all, OEM manufacturers tried to do. On the correct hardware it was a great advance over XP, fresh and modern after the tired look of XP, (which was a step backwards from Windows 2000, at least in the UI regard, don't know who designed the Luna Skin - Perhaps Walt Disney Studios).

Yes it had issues, the UAC was overly strict and needed tweaking (which it was for Windows 7), but anyone old enough can also remember the awful state that XP was in at the pre- SP1,SP2 Era

The Main issue with Vista was not even anything to do with Microsoft,

It was that fact that hardware manufacturers decided that they would rather make some easy money. They refused to make drivers for their existing hardware & brought out New "shiny", and excessively expensive "Vista" Hardware so if you wanted to move from XP to Vista you had to replace your hardware.

I've set-up complete network systems for business using Vista on correct hardware and it ran flawlessly for years

 

[Melchior]

Vista was the OS that gave us Windows 7, Never forget that - Windows 7 was an Evolution not a revolution.

yeah I know lol and I like Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 x64

I have been using Windows since the Windows 3.1/DOS days ^_^

 

[Layback Bear]

I kept away for Vista because of all the reports and post that I read.
Jumped right over Vista and went to Windows 7 from XP because of the reports and post I read about Windows 7.
Later on I found out it wasn't Vista; it was hardware people were using. I probable would not of had a problem with Vista because my hardware is never very old.

Vista is the parent of Windows 7 so how bad could it be? I'm think Vista was a good system but at the time I didn't know that. By the time I figured that out it was time for Windows 7. At the time of Vista I only had one computer. A major change had to be thought on very carefully so I could keep up and running. To be honest back in those days I didn't really know a hell of a lot about operating systems.
Some might say I still don't know anything about operating systems because I haven't jumped into the W-10 love nest. Although I did give it a try. My brain at this time thinks W-10 is still not ready for prime time. Way to many Upgrades.
Sometime my 3 brain cells are just slooooow.

Jack

 

[Brian60077]

I thought Vista support already ended.

 

[logo897]

I've never used vista as my main operating operating system, as I've had windows 7 on my first laptop back in 2010. I will never forget the days of going on my parent's Dell laptop with Vista to transfer my iTunes purchases to my iPod touch 1st gen. Thinking about it brings good memories back to me as a kid. 10 years of support is a long time. Rest in peace, windows Vista.

 

[michael diemer]

I also liked Vista. It came with my old Gateway 5656 which is still running strong. although I now have W7 on it (plus two Linuxes), I had vista until I blew it away unintentionally about 16 months ago while installing Linux. (I now routinely disconnect the drive I'm not installing to). with 64 bits and sufficient ram, Vista was fine. Also the most beautiful OS MS ever built IMO. All things must pass...

 

[Ranger4]

I went from Windows 95 to Vista & I liked Vista. A lot of people hated Vista but I had no troubles with it.

 

[Brds7t7]

I never really understood all the hate about Vista. Admittedly, it didn't run well on low spec machines, and had some unnecessary bloat, but it actually became a decent OS especially after SP2. I ran it on a few machines and it never caused me any issues.

Same goes for Windows 8.1, never really hated that either. With a bit of tweaking here & there and classic shell installed it's a pretty stable OS.

 

[Hellriser]

I am very conservative about changing OSes and skipped Vista. All the PCs I saw it on, I realize now, were low spec and it looked too clunky for me and didn't really have a reason to upgrade. Went from XP to Windows 7 and it was a clean transition. I think I'm even more conservative if the UI changes a lot from what I'm used to.

Although I'm 'technical literate' when it comes to tweaking, I'm starting to prefer more and more OSes that just work, without having me tweak them every other day to be closer to my needs. In the past years I just grew tired of reading hundreds of forums posts and losing hours to fix things that are, in some cases, way beyond my understanding of why it happens.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Hardware incompatibility was the main reason I eschewed Vista. Why should I replace a perfectly good computer, printer and functional scanner? I also delayed going from XP to Win 7 for the same reasons until I eventually replaced the scanner (which was nothing to write home about anyway) and printer (which still worked fine but I couldn't get unexpired toners carts for it anymore). I had been using Win 7 on a notebook for about a year before I built my current Win 7 machine.

 

[Khzyvfonhes]

I disagree, I think it was a great OS, put down mostly by people running in on under-powered hardware or followers of the herd.

I agree. Windows Vista was a fine O/S. Learn how to tame it, set it up right, and speed it up, it was fine. We used it at the D.o.D. until 2013, then went to Win7. Administrated properly, WinVista was reasonably fast, stable, and secure. I don't buy the "vulnerability" BS over unsupported O/S. I'm still using XP (SP3), and it's actually LESS trouble, than it was when it was being supported.

For the Vista users here, Just keep your Avast, and Firefox up to date, don't surf stupidly, and keep your windows maintained, and clean, and you should have few problems.

Want to do all the "Bad things?", get an old computer, load an old O/S, keep an image, and go play "Harvey Wallbanger", then re-image.

Simple as that.

 

[Khzyvfonhes]

I never really understood all the hate about Vista. Admittedly, it didn't run well on low spec machines, and had some unnecessary bloat, but it actually became a decent OS especially after SP2. I ran it on a few machines and it never caused me any issues.

Same goes for Windows 8.1, never really hated that either. With a bit of tweaking here & there and classic shell installed it's a pretty stable OS.

I actually like Win 8.1. I also used Classic Shell on it for awhile. Now, since I've learned my way around it really well, I just have it boot to the desktop, use shortcuts in a folder in my taskbar to get around, and I don't really need classic shell. I like it well enough, I have two, unused, copies of it. I have a retail copy, and an OEM copy I haven't used, and several OEM copies that I have used (I'm a system builder).

Set up right, and with enough ram (4gb is NOT enough. It wasn't enough for Win7 either), it's a VERY fast, and very STABLE O/S!

Widows 8 actually isn't a bad O/S. It's fast, and stable. I just hate the tiles. My laptop is NOT a frikkin' tablet!

 

[RoasterMen]

I'm not suprised people complained about their computer acting so sluggish with this OS.

Vista was way ahead of it's time, With XP 1GB of RAM was enough. I remember when we purchased our first HP desktop. It had 1GB of RAM, Dual Core processor and 250GB hard drive and the Home Basic edition ran pretty bad on it even after bloatware removal.

But after every service packs of it were released, it's got improved but those people with hardware only more than enough for XP didn't get any performance benefits.

Gaming on the SP2 is fine. Some games was dropping frames but not that big (I think it's because Vista was still consuming still huge enough RAM that 8GB has to be considered by some as "minimuim" system.)

 

[Jody Thornton]

Happy to say that we were able to successfully install Server 2008 updates on to Windows Vista. So it looks like we might be good until January 2020 (I won't get overly eager, but I'll just take it a month at a time)

 

[goodlad]

I used Vista only twice or thrice in an Internet Cafe, other than I haven't even seen this OS even in any of my friends systems either. At the start I liked the look of Vista. I had XP HP desktop, I wanted to try Vista but never could as I was going through severe financial crises at the time & couldn't afford lappy. Glad that's over, now I've an Dell laptop, never had a prob even once with its performance in 3-5 years. Will be using this one until it can do the need & probably buy a new one if a necessity arrives.

@RoasterMen: 8 gb ram for a regular desktop or an gaming one ? I don't even have 8gb ram on W7 lappy

@Khzyvfonhes: Its not easy for common users to keep avoiding sites & not downloading softwares, as they're used to it.

 

[SCANNERMAN777]

Vista was the OS that gave us Windows 7, Never forget that - Barman58

You know it, Barman. My 5 year old enjoyed it for 2 years after it was handed down to her from her sister who enjoyed it for 3 years, after it was handed down to her by her mother who used it for over 2 years, after it was handed to her mother by me, who used it for two years before I got Windows 7 Pro. I'd say that was one well-used operating system. That old Vista Home Premium found a good home with us and once the bugs were finally worked out of it (was that SP 3???) the o/s took on a life of its own. Adjusting from Vista to Win 7 was easy for all of us thanks to that old o/s. Now, as it stands the wife is using Win 7 Ultimate, the 9 year old is running Dell's Win 7 Ultimate, the 7 year old is running Dell's Win 7 Ultimate, and even the 5 year old is running Win 7 Ultimate (32 bit). Myself, I'm running 3 o/s on this machine Win 7 U, Win 8.1 Pro, and Linux Mint. Guess which o/s I keep going back to. Your probably don't have to. Hats off to Windows Vista they made some beautiful tasting (and refreshing) lemonade out of that o/s.