Today, Tuesday 11 April 2017, support for the Windows Vista operating system officially and definitively ends, which therefore will no longer be updated by Microsoft, even with security patches to cover bugs and new vulnerabilities discovered. For this reason, those who still use Vista as their PC system today must necessarily change and switch at least to Windows 7.
The end of Windows Vista will not however be traumatic and sensational as was the end of Windows XP, which when it ended its cycle in 2013 was still installed on 15% of computers around the world.
Windows Vista, compared to the celebrated and much loved XP, has been a big thorn in the eye for Microsoft since the beginning in 2007, with a very long development period of 5 years, a lot of money spent on the realization, hated by all users because heavy on RAM, with compatibility problems, full of bugs in its initial version, forcing Microsoft to release the excellent Windows 7 only two years later.
As with XP, the end of support for Vista, officially announced by Microsoft, also means that this operating system can no longer be used on a PC, unless this PC is not always offline and not connected to the internet.
No new security updates will be received on computers with Windows Vista and no support will be obtained, even for a fee, for software or problems.
According to NetMarketShare, Windows Vista is used by few, has a market share of 0.78 percent, less than half of the 1.65 percent that still uses Windows 8 (not Windows 8.1 which has more) and a fraction of the 8.45 percent market share still enjoyed by Windows XP.
Vista is the version in which Microsoft released the file search system, the Aero Glass theme and then also an improvement in security, including the hated UAC User Account Control which in Vista prevented any operation.
Those who currently use a PC with Windows Vista can now consider upgrading from Vista to Windows 7.
As we have already written about the life cycle for Windows 7, 8 and 10, Windows 7 is guaranteed for another three years before ending (and what will be a traumatic day for many users and companies).
The ideal, therefore, if you do not want to do a clean installation, it would first switch from Vista to 7 and then update from Windows 7 to Windows 10 which is still free today.
There is certainly a lot to work with installations, but at least we guarantee that the computer will be in use for a long time.
If you want to continue using Vista, remember that antivirus will not protect your computer as you would expect because the system will remain vulnerable to any new exploits discovered.
This means that all precautions to keep Windows XP safe now also apply to Vista.
