back to article Microsoft kills Windows Vista on April 11: No security patches, no hot fixes, no support, nada

One of Microsoft's most hated operating systems (Windows ME is difficult to beat on that front) is destined to die in less than a month. Windows Vista, launched to a less-than-stellar reception on January 30, 2007, saw most of its support stopped back in 2012. On April 11 this year the hammer finally falls. Microsoft warned …

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  1. J. R. Hartley
    1. John Sanders
      Trollface

      Well...

      Good riddance...

    2. TheVogon

      Vista was extra crappy on RTM for several reasons, a) Microsoft under pressure from PC Manufacturers released a minimum recommended spec that was simply not adequate for decent performance, b) Microsoft made a screw up in the way the GUI was threaded that meant that a single application could effectively hang the GUI while waiting for it to do something, c) local and network file copy performance was generally awful, and d) PC manufacturers were really getting into the concept of paid crapware and systems were often running lots of unnecessary junk.

      So on RTM if you bought a "recommended spec" Vista machine it really really sucked,

      b) and c) were actually fixed by Vista SP1 - after which a clean Vista install was actually quite useable on decent hardware!

      See https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc709618(v=ws.10).aspx

  2. asdf

    well duh

    >But sources familiar with the matter tell The Reg that such deals won't be on offer for Vista users.

    Probably because no enterprise in their right mind deployed Vista in any kind of volume and that is who buys the vast majority of support contracts.

    1. Mikel

      Re: well duh

      No enterprise in their right mind, sure. But then there's the US Army

      If I had a dollar for every time some sockpuppet tried to convince me that Vista was great I would be a wealthy man.

    2. P. Lee

      Re: well duh

      >Probably because no enterprise in their right mind deployed Vista

      and no back-ported, er, "Telemetry."

      1. TheVogon

        Re: well duh

        "and no back-ported, er, "Telemetry.""

        In case you were not aware, the Telemetry mostly doesn't apply to corporate versions of Windows....

    3. macjules

      Re: well duh

      Maybe someone at Microsoft is just sick of Vista, too.

      Most notably the poor buggers who were looking forwards to a career at Microsoft in OS development, only to end up working in the Vista support team.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: well duh

        Yes, but looking at all fun it created, outside work as Zombie Extras in films like Shawn of the Dead. There is always an upside, if you look hard enough.

  3. Mephistro
    Mushroom

    Vista,...

    ... die already!

    We'll miss you. Not.

  4. Tim99 Silver badge
    Windows

    I look back at it fondly.

    I can thank Vista. I used to write software for XP, amongst other OSs. I looked at Vista when it came out, was appalled, and started to look at at structuring my life for retirement. I had stopped paid work, and gone back to using mostly *NIX based systems, well before Windows 8...

    1. nkuk

      Re: I look back at it fondly.

      I think one good thing from Vista is that it changed desktop Linux from being mostly an unpolished hobbyist OS to a viable competitor to Windows. I started moving away from Windows thanks to Vista.

      1. Chemist

        Re: I look back at it fondly.

        "I think one good thing from Vista is that it changed desktop Linux from being mostly an unpolished hobbyist OS to a viable competitor to Windows"

        Linux distros had been a perfectly usable, stable and fast desktop OS long before Vista. I'd been using it for years before that ( including professionally) About ~2005 I built a dual core AMD 64 bit system running OpenSUSE 11.? . and that's still going now running Leap 42.2

        1. Voland's right hand Silver badge

          Re: I look back at it fondly.

          Linux distros had been a perfectly usable, stable and fast desktop OS long before Vista.

          Correct - I have not used a Windows in the house since 1997 (it is all-Linux including kids laptops and desktops).

          What you are missing however, is the "works, do not f*** with it" philosophy. In most other households it took Microsoft shipping an unusable OS for granny to stop yelling at the grandson who installed Mint on her machine.

  5. Barry Rueger

    Options?

    I use Vista once a month inside of VirtualBox to run our accounting software. It's one of those programs that never ran under WINE, and probably still doesn't. (Although I haven't checked recently, because there's been no reason.)

    Do I really want to cough up the money for newer version of Windows? (and God no, I do not want Windows 10) Do I cross my fingers and carry on with Vista? Or, now that I think of it, just disable network access in VB and assume it's safe?

    Bah. Maybe paper ledgers are a better choice.

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: Options?

      You should be able to buy a valid licence for Windows 7 somewhere – use that. It's faster than Vista anyway and you need your accounting software.

      1. Triggerfish

        Re: Options?

        You can buy a win 7 pro OEM licence in UK for about £130 stil, you'll need to buy some hardware with it, but last time I did something like that (funnily enough to buy Vista OEM) a new mouse was sufficient.l

      2. bombastic bob Silver badge
        Linux

        Re: Options?

        you should be able to download and install Mint Linux for free.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Options?

      Cheapest option is a used machine with Windows 7 COA. With a bit of research it's possible to find something that can be upgraded to be very close to the performance of current hardware, if you need that perf.

      1. Roland6 Silver badge

        Re: Options?

        Cheapest option is a used machine with Windows 7 COA.

        Preference would be for Dell/HP/Lenovo/Fujitsu with a Win7 Pro COA as offical OS recovery media is often available from ebay and other web outlets, but you can get lucky and find that the recovery partition is still intact.

        With a bit of research it's possible to find something that can be upgraded to be very close to the performance of current hardware

        I tend to go for the Fujitsu kit, surprisingly cheap in the UK. Picked up a 2 year old dual quad-core Xeon workstation for peanuts on ebay. Mind you it needed a clean out, new thermal compound and the fans lubricating, now it's a bit like using a subaru impreza for the school run...

      2. jelabarre59

        Re: Options?

        Cheapest option is a used machine with Windows 7 COA. With a bit of research it's possible to find something that can be upgraded to be very close to the performance of current hardware, if you need that perf.

        Or find a *dead* machine with MSW7 and make a P2V image/conversion of the disk. Should be way cheaper than buying a still functional machine.

    3. jelabarre59

      Re: Options?

      I use Vista once a month inside of VirtualBox to run our accounting software. It's one of those programs that never ran under WINE, and probably still doesn't. (Although I haven't checked recently, because there's been no reason.)

      I wonder if you could make that ledger work under ReactOS? (hey, stop laughing!)

    4. martinusher Silver badge

      Re: Options?

      You definitely want to avoid Windows 10. Its just undergone a 'major update' which has numerous drawbacks, not least that its trying to suck you into Microsoft's cloud while introducing a whole slew of annoying bugs and problems. My solution to the Vista problem would be to ignore it; like industrial systems you can't keep upgrading your platforms every five minutes so you isolate your system from the prying eyes of the Interweb, just leaving it to do its job. (Software, after all, doesn't wear out.)

      One of the ironies of my Win10 machine is it shares a desk with an older system that runs both Linux and Windows 2000. I never cease to be impressed about how stable and reliable Win2000 was compared to "new, improved" versions of the code. Sure, it'll probably attract all manner of Trojans and stuff if it was allowed outside the firewall but it leads a relatively quiet and isolated life.

  6. inmypjs Silver badge

    "To shift files from one system"

    At a glance I read that as shit flies - must be something to do with talking about Microsoft operating systems.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just look at the flowers Lizzie

    [[[[BLAM]]]]

    1. Aladdin Sane

      Re: Just look at the flowers Lizzie

      Closer to George and Lenny.

    2. 0765794e08
      Terminator

      Re: Just look at the flowers Lizzie

      Harsh, but at least Lizzie had some redeeming features. Vista had none.

      And isn’t it strange how you never see Carol Peletier and Bill Gates in the same room at the same time...

  8. Brenda McViking
    Mushroom

    I think the only question that ever mattered with regards to Vista - even since the early days of it's inception - was how should it be put out of it's misery? The Uninitiated used to say give it more RAM, but any professional would give you options:

    - Firing Squad

    - Hanging

    - Electric Chair

    - Lethal Injection

    - Gas Chamber

    1. hplasm
      Coat

      options:

      You missed - Will it blend?

  9. Phil Kingston

    Will they be sending out some sort of "So long and thanks for all the fish" gesture via the Vista Ultimate Extras add-ons?

    1. Aladdin Sane

      Malcolm Tucker saying "Fuckity bye"?

  10. redpawn

    The Zima of OSes

    Who wouldn't want something different when it's new. Well when you take out the good stuff and substitute crap. Good riddance to the both of you and no nostalgic remakes of Vista please.

  11. Nolveys

    Britain's National Health Service is still using a lot of Windows XP systems, for example, and Microsoft will support these at a cost of $200 per desktop for year one, $400 for year two, and $800 for a third year.

    Luckily that only accounts for 0.03% of the NHS budget line item for things that don't actually contribute to health care.

  12. Oengus

    Couldn't happen to a more deserving OS.

    I vaguely remember seeing a PC that had Vista installed... I thought that Vista was long dead and buried (or at least should have been).

    MS won't support Vista because it was technically a "Home" user OS. XP was technically a Business OS so theoretically anyone still using it has money to pay for support. MS long ago gave up caring for the home user (and lately I think they are only paying lip service to the business user without a subscription based service). Vista will not be missed by me.

  13. chivo243 Silver badge
    Windows

    Only one!

    I've only worked/tried to fix one Fista install, unfortunately, it belongs to mom! She bought a netbook back when they were fashionable, pre-loaded with Fista. I even bought her a copy of Win7 but she never installed it.

    I was once asked to work on a laptop and found it had Fista, and declined the job...

  14. wayne 8

    I thought users killed off Vista a while back.

  15. Potemkine Silver badge
    Pint

    Good riddance

    It may be a little bit early to celebrate with Champagne, anyway the killing of Vista would be a good occasion to do so.

  16. AMBxx Silver badge
    Windows

    ME Hated?

    Maybe my memory is hazey, but the only problem with ME is that it added so little to Windows 98 and was just MS gouging gullible users for another upgrade.

    What have I forgotten?

    1. Dave K

      Re: ME Hated?

      It had software compatibility issues due to MS hiding DOS mode which a lot of utilities still required, System Restore was poorly implemented and would often back-up viruses and then restore them to your system if you used it. It was incredibly flaky and a lot less stable than Windows 98 (and that's saying something).

      In short, It didn't really bring that much to the table, but cost a lot in terms of compatibility and stability. And that is why it was widely disliked.

      1. John Riddoch

        Re: ME Hated?

        My understanding is that a lot of the stability issues were due to driver compatibility - lazy vendors wouldn't write a new driver, they'd just repackage the 98 driver and ship. In some cases, you'd get away with it, sometimes you'd hit an edge case where the driver threw a wobbly and BSOD'd.

        I had ME back in the day and found it ran OK, at least as well as 95 had, i.e. you had to reinstall every 6-12 months to keep it working well. That said, it didn't seem to be much different from 98 from a user perspective so didn't have much benefit for the stability issues you've mentioned.

        1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          Re: ME Hated?

          "I had ME back in the day and found it ran OK...you had to reinstall every 6-12 months to keep it working well."

          AFAIC, that's two highly contradictory statements! ;-)

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: ME Hated?

        ystem Restore was poorly implemented and would often back-up viruses and then restore them to your system if you used it.

        It was worse than that. You could wipe a virus, but they used to bury themselves in system restore. Upon reboot, the virus would pop back out again.

        It became standard to turn off system restore, before wiping a machine of malware.

    2. MJI Silver badge

      Re: ME Hated?

      It was a real pain compared to 98 R2

      Still DOS under the bonnet but hid it for no real reason.

      It was a PITA to set up to run DOS applications, much more hassle than 98.

      XP was much much better than ME, as at least it was a proper Windows OS rather than a messed up GUI layer

    3. PNGuinn
      Mushroom

      Re: ME Hated? What have I forgotten? @AMBxx

      Windows 98.

      >> for slurp, not you.

    4. Captain Scarlet Silver badge

      Re: ME Hated?

      The bloat ware in the form of media player, explorer shell add-ins which caused huge slowdown and endless BSOD's, nuking of anything MSDos related to make it look like it was not Windows 9x

      Sorry but Vista is paradise compared to Windows ME and Mac OS9

    5. Pirate Dave Silver badge
      Pirate

      Re: ME Hated?

      Wasn't ME the first one to come out with "Home" and "Pro" versions? And IIRC, you couldn't do much networking with the Home version (this was back when Novell Netware was still a Big Deal).

      1. ADRM

        @ Pirate Dave arrrgh.

        Wasn't ME the first one to come out with "Home" and "Pro" versions?

        ME was the home version. The Pro version was Windows 2000 which some home users bought and were flummoxed by it. 2000 is fondly remembered by myself and others as one of the best Microsoft OS's ever. I take a 2K VM for s spin every now and then with Winamp 2.9. XP was the first NT to have a Home and Pro version then M$ decided to milk everyone with 106 versions of Vista and 7. Then back to home and pro from 8 onwards. Not counting Vista, 7,8 10 Enterprise (Starships are cheaper) versions.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Windows Vista ...

    Rot in peace ya pile o shite!

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The Holy Grail - Vista Service Pack 2

    Any barebones laptop (full of crudware) from 2008, with Vista RTM, it was like finding the Holy Grail to upgrade to Vista SP2. Days and days of 200+ Windows Updates. (Yep, so no different to Windows 7SP1 today).

    To do this without a single failed update was literally the "Holy Grail" in IT achievement at the time. (Again, so no different from Windows 7SP1 today or Windows 10).

    I always found it odd how people suddenly thought Windows 7 was a fantastic OS, because there are so many elements from Vista SP2 lingering. To me, Win7 was lipstick on a pig. The really shitty Windows Explorer for one, whoever wrote that, had never worked with/organised files in their life.

    Windows Explorer is reason alone not to use Vista/Windows 7 for any file management tasks. Period.

    It's just plain awful.

    (Today. I just don't trust Windows 10 File Explorer, it often flags 'new unseen before' USB drives as having errors, so it can scan/examine files for Microsoft's 'threat detection', USB drives which have shown no such errors in Win7/MacOS/Linux)

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    W10 metered connection updates

    "To do this without a single failed update was literally the "Holy Grail" in IT achievement at the time. (Again, so no different from Windows 7SP1 today or Windows 10)."

    A suitable hook to mention that MS are possibly going to circumvent the "metered connection" method of blocking W10 updates. They could be intending to automatically download what they consider essential updates.

    http://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-10-fears-that-microsoft-is-about-to-force-updates-over-metered-connections/

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