It has been a fixture in those ‘biggest tech flops’ articles for a decade, but today, Microsoft finally gets to wave goodbye to arguably the biggest misstep in its illustrious history.
Support for 2007’s widely castigated Windows Vista operating system ends today, meaning those who want to continue receiving security updates must update to a newer version like Windows 7.
As is the pattern with Microsoft’s operating systems, mainstream support for the OS ended in April 2012, five years after the release. This meant no new features would be added.
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According to NetMarketShare, Vista only accounts for 0.72% of desktop users around the world, so these machines are few and far between.
On the flip side, the near-50% of PCs still rocking Windows 7, the widely beloved operating system, have until 2020 before Microsoft ends the ‘extended’ support.
The end of the road for Vista came on the same day Microsoft began rolling out the Creators Update for Windows 10 users.
Although the free update has been available to manually download since April 5, prompts to update should now be hitting the PCs.
Do you think Vista got a bad rap down the years? Was it really that bad? State your case in the comments below.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
