The last time you could walk into a retail store and purchase a copy of Microsoft Windows Vista was in October 2010 and the last time you could purchase a PC with Windows Vista installed was just one year later.
When Windows Vista entered the retail market in January of 2007 it was a given that five years later mainstream support for the operating system would come to a close. In reality Windows Vista actually got a couple of extra months in mainstream support.
But what does this all mean to those of you still running Windows Vista on your laptop or PC?
In Microsoft’s Lifecycle Management cycle a product that is under mainstream support receives the following services:
- Paid support (per-incident, per hour, and others)
- Security update support
- Non-security hotfix support
- No-charge incident support
- Warranty claims
- Design changes and feature requests
- Product-specific information that is available by using the online Microsoft Knowledge Base
- Product-specific information that is available by using the Support site at Microsoft Help and Support to find answers to technical questions
When a product enters the extended support phase it only receives these services:
- Paid support (per-incident, per hour, and others)
- Security update support
- Non-security hotfix support (Requires extended hotfix agreement, purchased within 90 days of mainstream support ending)
- Product-specific information that is available by using the online Microsoft Knowledge Base
- Product-specific information that is available by using the Support site at Microsoft Help and Support to find answers to technical questions
What all of the above means is that Windows Vista will no longer receive any fixes for critical system issues which are not security related unless you have purchased an extended hotfix agreement by 10 July 2012. You will continue to get security related updates until the extended support period, which ends five years from today, is over and you can always pay for support for specific problems you may be experiencing.
Of course one solution to all of this is to upgrade to Windows 7 which is still in its mainstream support cycle until January 2015.
For more information about the Windows Lifecycle please visit the Windows lifecycle fact sheet.
