Windows Vista transitions to Extended Support

How long have you used Windows Vista for?

Never	12.5%	[ 1 ]
Less than one year	12.5%	[ 1 ]
One to less than three years	50.0%	[ 4 ]
More than three years	25.0%	[ 2 ]
Total Votes:			[ 8 ]

[ppgrainbow]

For more information regarding the transition to the Extended Support phase for Windows Vista, read these news articles: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

Today is the last day that Windows Vista will be fully supported.

Starting tomorrow, support for Windows Vista will be reduced and will start dying as it will only receive critical security updates. For the next 90 days (until 10 July 2012), users who are still on Windows Vista can enroll in a Extended Hotfix Agreement to pay for non-security related hotfixes and support. This change affects Windows Vista Starter, Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate. With the exception of Windows Vista Starter (32-bit only), the other editions of Windows Vista come in 32-bit and 64-bit.

Because Windows Vista is more than five years old now, certain components such as the upcoming Internet Explorer 10 are not going to be offered for it. Internet Explorer 10 is designed for Windows 7 and the upcoming Windows 8 operating system and it would be non-trivial to port the upcoming browser back to Windows Vista.

Windows Vista was Released to Manufacturing on 2 November 2006 and was made available for businesses and enterprise customers on 30 November 2006. Windows Vista was released worldwide on 30 January 2007.

When Windows 7 came out in October 2009, the market share for w3schools reported that Windows Vista peaked at 18.6% and NetMarketShare reported a peak of 18.83%. Now that Windows Vista will be out of Mainstream Support after today, 4.3% (w3schools) to 7% (NetMarketShare) of internet connected users are still running Windows Vista.

Windows Vista was never very well supported. When Windows Vista was released more than five years ago, the OS received a lot of criticism. Hardware support was not very good and the fault relied on the hardware manufacturers themselves. When users installed Vista on some of their PCs, it ran slow and sluggish for them even if Microsoft introduced the User Access Control when the software giant implemented to try to make the OS less vulnerable to malware.

On the other side of the coin, Windows XP which is still used by 28% to 43% in the world is even more advanced in age and well into its Extended Support period. Less than two years from today, all support for Windows XP will end and it will probably be unsafe to continue using it.

Along with Windows XP, Microsoft stopped selling Windows Vista to direct OEMs and terminated retail sales of the product on 22 October 2010 and ended Windows Vista OEM system builder pee-installation sales on 22 October 2011.

Microsoft is now warning users still on Windows XP and even Windows Vista to upgrade to Windows 7 as it will gradually and slowly phase out support for the OS. Windows 7 is the only fully supported OS and it won't at least be the end of this year when vendors will start dropping support for Windows Vista (and even the original release of Windows 7).

Looking further ahead, Mainstream Support for Windows 7 will end on 13 January 2015 and Extended Support for Windows 7 will end on 14 January 2020. Support for Windows Vista Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium and Ultimate were originally supposed to end after today, but it was extended by five years to give users enough time to migrate to a fully supported OS. The same applied to consumer versions of Windows 7.

The decision to extend support for Windows Vista and Windows 7 came after Microsoft evaluated the support lifecycle for Windows Vista and Windows 7 and make final decisions if and when it is necessary.

In addition to Windows Vista, Internet Explorer 7, the browser tied to the OS and Office 2007 will also transition to Extended Support as well. All support for Internet Explorer 7 and Office 2007 will be terminated on 11 April 2017 along with Windows Vista.

What are your thoughts regarding the transition to the Extended Support for Windows Vista and the slow phase out of that OS?

[Pipebracket]

Why do you insist on performing the same function as an RSS feed?

[Minion4Hire]

ppgrainbow

What are your thoughts regarding the transition to the Extended Support for Windows Vista and the slow phase out of that OS?

Vista never reached the kind of deployment levels as XP or Windows 7. It makes sense to end support sooner rather than later because there are fewer users to support.

Spending more money on a platform fewer and fewer people are using would be foolish.

[ppgrainbow]

Minion4Hire

ppgrainbow

What are your thoughts regarding the transition to the Extended Support for Windows Vista and the slow phase out of that OS?

Vista never reached the kind of deployment levels as XP or Windows 7. It makes sense to end support sooner rather than later because there are fewer users to support.

Spending more money on a platform fewer and fewer people are using would be foolish.

I agree. All support for Windows Vista doesn't end until April 2017...so that gives an estimated 7% of users enough time to get off Vista before vendors cut them off. After April 2017, Windows Vista users will be completely out of luck and Microsoft will finally put Windows Vista out of its misery.

I kinda admit that Microsoft was foolish enough to extend Vista support than to end support now. There is absolutely no excuse for an estimated 7% of users to keep running Windows Vista now that it its getting ready to die slowly and painfully.

With Windows XP support coming to a end in two years, I feel that we're only going to supporting Windows 7 now. evil

[Lanackse-Kanvae]

ppgrainbow

With Windows XP support coming to a end in two years, I feel that we're only going to supporting Windows 7 now. evil

Windows 8 MIGHT be out or at the very least be at the RC stage by then.

[ppgrainbow]

Lanackse-Kanvae

ppgrainbow

With Windows XP support coming to a end in two years, I feel that we're only going to supporting Windows 7 now. evil

Windows 8 MIGHT be out or at the very least be at the RC stage by then.

As far as I know right now, Windows 8 has been in the Consumer Preview release since the 29th of February and if I'm correct, the OS should be RTM'd sometime this Summer and released worldwide sometime this Fall. 3nodding

I'm gonna double check some sources regarding Windows 8 as I see it.

[Minion4Hire]

Lanackse-Kanvae

ppgrainbow

With Windows XP support coming to a end in two years, I feel that we're only going to supporting Windows 7 now. evil

Windows 8 MIGHT be out or at the very least be at the RC stage by then.

Yeah, there's no official word from Microsoft (that I know of) but everyone seems to be hinting at a release by year's end. Part of this is to just get an x86 tablet-optimized OS on the market, and to allow Microsoft to directly compete with the other major players while the market is still (mostly) in its infancy.

[trezoid]

ppgrainbow

I kinda admit that Microsoft was foolish enough to extend Vista support than to end support now. There is absolutely no excuse for an estimated 7% of users to keep running Windows Vista now that it its getting ready to die slowly and painfully.

Vista was better then XP in just about every possible way. It's biggest problem was releasing a public beta too early. Beta's have bugs, but people treated it as a finished release so blasted vista even when the bugs just weren't in the shipping release.

[nouveau sereph]

trezoid

ppgrainbow

I kinda admit that Microsoft was foolish enough to extend Vista support than to end support now. There is absolutely no excuse for an estimated 7% of users to keep running Windows Vista now that it its getting ready to die slowly and painfully.

Vista was better then XP in just about every possible way. It's biggest problem was releasing a public beta too early. Beta's have bugs, but people treated it as a finished release so blasted vista even when the bugs just weren't in the shipping release.

That, and a new driver model that hardware manufacturers were not nearly fast enough to adopt, as well as a lot of misinformation about UAC.

[WaruiKoohii]

Lanackse-Kanvae

ppgrainbow

With Windows XP support coming to a end in two years, I feel that we're only going to supporting Windows 7 now. evil

Windows 8 MIGHT be out or at the very least be at the RC stage by then.

It definitely will be.

It'll be, at minimum, RTM by the end of this year.

[WaruiKoohii]

Minion4Hire

Lanackse-Kanvae

ppgrainbow

With Windows XP support coming to a end in two years, I feel that we're only going to supporting Windows 7 now. evil

Windows 8 MIGHT be out or at the very least be at the RC stage by then.

Yeah, there's no official word from Microsoft (that I know of) but everyone seems to be hinting at a release by year's end. Part of this is to just get an x86 tablet-optimized OS on the market, and to allow Microsoft to directly compete with the other major players while the market is still (mostly) in its infancy.

Not just an x86 tablet OS, but an ARM version of Windows as well for more strict tablet applications.

The basic idea is that strict tablets will be WoA, while Wox86 will be available for dual purpose applications (convertible tablets, laptops/desks with touch screens).

[Minion4Hire]

WaruiKoohii

Minion4Hire

Lanackse-Kanvae

ppgrainbow

With Windows XP support coming to a end in two years, I feel that we're only going to supporting Windows 7 now. evil

Windows 8 MIGHT be out or at the very least be at the RC stage by then.

Yeah, there's no official word from Microsoft (that I know of) but everyone seems to be hinting at a release by year's end. Part of this is to just get an x86 tablet-optimized OS on the market, and to allow Microsoft to directly compete with the other major players while the market is still (mostly) in its infancy.

Not just an x86 tablet OS, but an ARM version of Windows as well for more strict tablet applications.

The basic idea is that strict tablets will be WoA, while Wox86 will be available for dual purpose applications (convertible tablets, laptops/desks with touch screens).

The difference is that it will be the first x86 tablet-oriented OS which should make Intel happy.

[WaruiKoohii]

Minion4Hire

WaruiKoohii

Minion4Hire

Lanackse-Kanvae

ppgrainbow

With Windows XP support coming to a end in two years, I feel that we're only going to supporting Windows 7 now. evil

Windows 8 MIGHT be out or at the very least be at the RC stage by then.

Yeah, there's no official word from Microsoft (that I know of) but everyone seems to be hinting at a release by year's end. Part of this is to just get an x86 tablet-optimized OS on the market, and to allow Microsoft to directly compete with the other major players while the market is still (mostly) in its infancy.

Not just an x86 tablet OS, but an ARM version of Windows as well for more strict tablet applications.

The basic idea is that strict tablets will be WoA, while Wox86 will be available for dual purpose applications (convertible tablets, laptops/desks with touch screens).

The difference is that it will be the first x86 tablet-oriented OS which should make Intel happy.

I'd argue that it's the second x86 tablet-oriented OS, but it's the first of the current multi-touch generation.

[nouveau sereph]

Minion4Hire

WaruiKoohii

Minion4Hire

Lanackse-Kanvae

ppgrainbow

With Windows XP support coming to a end in two years, I feel that we're only going to supporting Windows 7 now. evil

Windows 8 MIGHT be out or at the very least be at the RC stage by then.

Yeah, there's no official word from Microsoft (that I know of) but everyone seems to be hinting at a release by year's end. Part of this is to just get an x86 tablet-optimized OS on the market, and to allow Microsoft to directly compete with the other major players while the market is still (mostly) in its infancy.

Not just an x86 tablet OS, but an ARM version of Windows as well for more strict tablet applications.

The basic idea is that strict tablets will be WoA, while Wox86 will be available for dual purpose applications (convertible tablets, laptops/desks with touch screens).

The difference is that it will be the first x86 tablet-oriented OS which should make Intel happy.

If tablet vendors don't just stick with cheaper, more power efficient ARM for their Windows offerings. Not saying they won't appear of course, but like x86 in the 90s ARM has proven itself as the goto chip for mobile offerings and I daresay Intel's success in the tablet market via Win8 will really just boil down to whether Win8 tablets with Intel (and, by extension, the entirety of Windows programs) are something the consumers really want. Desktop apps and the way in which they're designed to be use don't mesh terribly well with tablets, in general, and I think it'll only take a few months for people to decide one way or another...and frankly, I hope they swing towards preferring ARM on their tablets and x86 on their laptops anyway, because I'm not looking forward to a universe where desktop applications are designed with the huge buttons and gesture based control that would become necessary for Windows apps to really support tablets. It doesn't work on OSX Lion's Launchpad, and I'm having trouble finding ways it could be much better on Win8.

To put it another way, I don't miss OSX because I'm on my iPad and not my MBP, they're different devices designed for different uses cases. Windows is trying to court BOTH use devices with one OS, and I'm not sure that consumers really care to use a tablet like they would a laptop, nor a laptop like they'd use a tablet. It'll be interesting to see how it all shakes out anyway, it is a bold move.