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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 …
COMMENTS
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Friday 17th March 2017 20:06 GMT 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
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Friday 17th March 2017 03:52 GMT Tim99
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...
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Friday 17th March 2017 18:15 GMT 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
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Monday 20th March 2017 07:36 GMT Voland's right hand
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.
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Friday 17th March 2017 03:58 GMT 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.
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Friday 17th March 2017 14:21 GMT Roland6
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...
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Friday 17th March 2017 17:38 GMT 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.
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Friday 17th March 2017 17:42 GMT 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!)
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Saturday 18th March 2017 05:29 GMT martinusher
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.
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Friday 17th March 2017 05:28 GMT Brenda McViking
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
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Friday 17th March 2017 06:04 GMT 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.
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Friday 17th March 2017 06:21 GMT 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.
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Friday 17th March 2017 06:37 GMT chivo243
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...
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Friday 17th March 2017 08:34 GMT 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.
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Friday 17th March 2017 09:20 GMT 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.
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Friday 17th March 2017 09:50 GMT 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.
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Sunday 19th March 2017 18:05 GMT 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.
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Friday 17th March 2017 08:59 GMT 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)
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Friday 17th March 2017 09:22 GMT 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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Friday 17th March 2017 09:23 GMT Caerdydd_Mike
In a Moss accent ...
https://qph.ec.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-30fe3d6e4e6fcfffe279958e755273fc-c
Bomb Disposal:[referring to the bomb disposal robot] I'm just having a couple of problems with it.
Moss:What kind of operating system does it use?
Bomb Disposal:It's er... Vista.
Moss:We're going to die!
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Friday 17th March 2017 10:08 GMT MacroRodent
Updates, what updates?
"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,"
So there were supposed to be recent updates? I have a Vista inside a VirtualBox VM on the personal Linux minilaptop I lug around (just in case a Windows is needed, but it has not actually seen much use), and updates stopped working on it over a year ago.
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Friday 17th March 2017 10:25 GMT Colin Bull 1
still using Vista
Sadly I still have to get the laptop with vista out to update the relatively new TomTom. It can only be update on a Windows machine and I cannot be arsed to install a Windows VM on my Linux boxes just for that.
Laplink brings back some memories - who remenbers the blue double headed transfer cables?
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Friday 17th March 2017 15:26 GMT Updraft102
I wouldn't call Windows 10 a "fixed* 8. I thought 8 had to be the worst thing ever-- until I saw 10. The things I hated about 8 seem so trivial now that I just upgraded from 7 to 8.1 on both of my main PCs in order to buy three more years of security updates so I can keep avoiding 10 like the plague that it is.
When you rip out all of the apps (Windows Store included), install Classic Shell and Old New Explorer, and kill the ribbon and the charms bar, 8 becomes a pretty decent OS. Why did we all hate it so much again when it can be made usable with relative ease? I can't really remember anymore... it seems like a great improvement compared to 10 now!
Unlike Windows 10, 8.1 doesn't spy on me (I never installed the telemetry updates), and I can install updates as I see fit. There's no Cortana, no ads, no rapid update cycle (with its perpetual beta build quality, now that MS got rid of their QA people) and no unwanted installation of Candy Crush or any other app MS has decided I need. It doesn't change my drivers or uninstall my stuff on its own, and it doesn't periodically change my settings back to their Microsoft-serving defaults.
It took Windows 10 to make Windows 8 look like a reasonable product.
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Friday 17th March 2017 14:23 GMT Anonymous Coward
"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."
the NHS is a fine institution and i'm in no way advocating privatisation.
but this kind of stupidity really p*sses me off. especially when it never gets mentioned by the 'save the nhs' crowd.
the NHS is hemorrhaging money on this stuff and it gets totally ignored in the false (and distracting) privatised vs state provisioned services debate.
The NHS budget should be ringfenced but certain aspects of it should be de-funded - starting with salary for the execs or oversee this kind of stupidity.
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Friday 17th March 2017 14:34 GMT Anonymous Coward
To the genius of eternity . ... .
In the music of the morns
Blown through the Conchimarian horns,
Down the dark vistas of the reboantic Norns,
To the Genius of Eternity
Crying, “Come to me! Come to me!”
Author: Thomas Holley Chivers
I liked Vista quite a bit. It's certainly the high point of Microsoft aesthetics, what with Aero, and that great start button that sticks out of the task bar, its complement to the Office 2007 ribbon button (I like the ribbon too). lovely symmetry there. Kernel 6, which is so nice that MS named it twice (now called kernel v10). Shiny, blue, animations - rest in peace, old soldier.
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Saturday 18th March 2017 10:58 GMT Roger Mew
Why replace, My vintage ex army Land Rover still has a function and parts are available... .
Why rest? Many of my acquired software will not run on later stuff, and why the f.... would I want to buy something that means I will have to buy another load of software that only does what mine does now! It would also have complexities that are not needed and also need retraining. Sorry I guess you are also the type that buys a new Ferrari when the tyres need changing!
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Friday 17th March 2017 16:19 GMT Chris Jasper
I remember going to a Microsoft presentation for a release of Exchange after Windows 7 had been released and the MS staff there all referred to Vista as "A previous Microsoft operating system", turns out they were not allowed to say Vista which we all twigged in a few minutes and spent the rest of the session trying to get any of them to utter the word.
Good times,,,,
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Friday 17th March 2017 16:36 GMT anonymous boring coward
"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"
Omg!
Just goes to show how very wise it is to put your eggs in the proprietary closed source basket.
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Saturday 18th March 2017 00:54 GMT Anonymous Coward
I suppose it shows how expensive life support is.
"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"
I suppose it shows how expensive life support is.
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Friday 17th March 2017 17:16 GMT Stoke the atom furnaces
Microsoft "Technology"
"Microsoft ... invest our resources towards more recent technologies so that we can continue to deliver great new experiences."
Apart from shiteware like cortana, metro interface, edge etc., is there any technology that is useful in Windows 10 that Vista (or stable OSes like XP or NT4.0 come to think of it) did not have?
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Friday 17th March 2017 19:03 GMT Anonymous Coward
Remember Longhorn?
For those of us that worked for MS at the time probably remember Longhorn. Longhorn had lots, probably too many, major improvements in it making it really interesting. It became clear that Longhorn would never make the 3 year release cycle. This lead to the Longhorn reset, what came out of that was Vista. Rumour had it Kevin Turner COO was behind that.
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Friday 17th March 2017 19:10 GMT Dwarf
Roll the clock forwards a couple of years
In a couple of years time, you won't get stories like this any more as nobody will be running that Windows thingy as they haven't got a decent replacement for Windows 7 and they gave away the golden goose of a trusted (as in it doesn't spy on you and its rock solid) operating system.
I actually quite liked Vista as it was a step in the right direction for Windows 7 and a long way up from XP in terms of capability, even if it was a bit shaky from a stability and performance perspective.
I wonder how people will remember build <whatever today's OS build number is> and how MS will decide to stop supporting that build number in x years time, or is it now just summarised as "we don't support yesterdays beta any more"
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Saturday 18th March 2017 10:47 GMT Roger Mew
Who says Vista is hated?
I do not get why most hated, I have found it the most stable platform if you get the software and build the computer yourself. I have not had BSoD's etc and it has been very reliable, not so the rubbish that has followed. If you think that vista has been bad, why? This machine has run reliably since it was built some 6 years ago and the only thing that has had a problem is down to MS updates in the last 6 months which I perceive as deliberate. I have programs on here that run music modification and design stuff all without problems. One only has to read the items about Vista to know that. I am guessing that those with problems had ready built items with loads of advertising rubbish etc included. I cannot run some of the stuff on 10 and in fact as 10 is so prone to problems (although it has improved) so Vista will continue to be used with the help of private companies like AVG, Sophos etc. In fact it seems that as MS are "washing their hands of it" some private companies are taking it under their wing. So if Google chrome want also to lose users tuff bye to them also R
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Saturday 25th March 2017 12:39 GMT Dassiewan
Windows Vista rocks, lol (Srsly)
I see here, too, many many many people that say Vista was bad.
Vista may have BEEN bad back when it was released, but for the past, oh, say 4-5 years it has become as good as Windows 7, I daresay.
I am running Vista at two Core-i5 desktop with 4 GB and two old/el-cheapo laptops with 2 GB of RAM, and all four of them work just fine (except for that "memory hole" with Windows Update after SP2, but that also exists in Windows 7 and so isn't a Vista thing).
One of the desktops even is/was my (mid-end) gaming computer, with games like Crysis 2, Mass Effect 2, Diable III, or EVE Online.
I saw no reason to switch to Windows 7 (which has things in it that I found less user-friendly).
I invite everyone over to my house for a Windows Vista part (har har har): I'll put y'all in front of one of my Vista computers and I guarantee everyone that after a couple of hours you WILL admit that Vista is (and I repeat: in the present) practically as good as Windows 7.
In fact, the other week, just because I could, I have installed Vista Home Premium 64-bit on an SSD, and I found all the necessary drivers without any problems, and several 64-bit programs, and I got WesternDigital's "SSD Dashboard" to get the TRIM function to work (and it seems to work fine).
Vista boots up in 10 to 15 seconds wiht the SSD, instead of in 40 to 50 seconds on a HDD.
Knowing and using also MacOS X and GNU/Linux, I am NOT a n00b when it comes to computers and operating systems. Ages ago I (even) worked in AIX (that's UNIX for you, n00bs). I have no reason to lie about Windows Vista: my "testimony" here comes purely out of personal experience.
I am "sad" to see Windows Vista go. (No, I will not switch to that godawful Windows 10, nor to W7 or W8: Vista will be my last Microsoft OS.)