Microsoft on Tuesday 11 April has announced that it will be officially ending its support for Windows Vista OS and all the supported PCs. Though Microsoft has officially ended the mainstream support for the OS in April 2012, it provided extended support for the second service pack which was finally ended on Tuesday.
Windows Vista which was launched 10 years ago in 2007 faced a widespread criticism from the users for slowing down their system and prompting them with more user authorization. Though Microsoft initially claimed Windows Vista to be a futuristic OS, it eventually ended up as the worst operating system to be developed by the technology giant.
The then Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer admitted the OS to be his biggest regret.
What are the reasons for the failure of Windows Vista?
The main reason for the failure of the OS was because its predecessor Windows XP was well received by the users and they were not ready to move to a new OS. This ultimately led Microsoft to introduce some of the features that it planned for Windows Vista to be released in Windows XP. The fallout of Windows Vista has forced Microsoft to come up with a new operating system Windows 7 much earlier than expected.
Windows Vista was launched at a time when the sales and the market share of Microsoft have taken a major hit and Apple emerging as a tough competitor. The launch of the OS has further declined the sales of the company.
With the launch of Windows 7 OS in 2009, Microsoft was back on track with sales picking up again.
What should Windows Vista users do now?
Since Microsoft has now ended its official support for the OS, you need to stop using them and move over to the more advanced one namely Windows 10. However you can continue using those PC which has Vista installed in it, but you may not get any security updates, application fixes and other support options from Microsoft which can make your system more vulnerable to malware and cyber-attacks.
Microsoft in their support forum has warned the users that their computers would become more vulnerable to security attacks if they continue using the OS even after the support has ended. They further said that since Internet Explorer 9 is not supported anymore, if the user browses the internet using Internet Explorer 9 in a Vista PC, then the system can be easily exploited by cyber criminals and hackers.
However, this move from Microsoft is not going to create any havoc as recent statistics indicates that only 0.7% of the PCs connecting to the internet has Windows Vista when compared to Windows XP and Windows 7 which accounts for 7.7% and 50% respectively. Please remember that Microsoft has earlier announced that it will be stopping its support for Windows 7 OS by January 2020.
