If you need to make a warranty claim or get incident support on a Windows Vista PC, now’s the time. On Tuesday, Microsoft will end “Mainstream Support” for Windows Vista, moving into an “Extended Support” phase that lasts through April 11, 2017. Microsoft will no longer offer of no-charge incident support, warranty claims and design fixes for the 5-year-old operating system. For IT pros or users who need to make specific fixes to the commercial Windows code, Microsoft will require an extended hotfix agreement, which must be purchased within 90 days from Tuesday.
As part of the Extended Support phase, Vista users will still be able to get security updates, and can still pay for support per-incident, per-hour or in other ways. Of course, Microsoft will still make Windows Vista product information available through its online Knowledge Base.
Microsoft stopped selling Windows Vista at retail in October 2010, and PC makers stopped selling Vista-based computers in October 2011, according to Microsoft’s Windows lifecycle fact sheet. The company has not yet given a timeline for when it will stop selling Windows 7, as the company works on the launch of Windows 8 this year.
Vista is widely regarded as one of Microsoft’s biggest failures, and one of the worst operating systems of all time, due to bloat, sluggishness and hardware incompatibilities. Although the end of Mainstream Support for Vista is part of Microsoft’s standard product lifecycle, the company is no doubt eager to put the days of Vista behind it.
Source: PCWorld
More Stories
Microsoft Drop’s Window 10 Preview Build 15002 PreRelease
This week was as Geeky as it can get for Windows 10 Insiders. Microsoft release of Build 15002 to the...
Microsoft Announces NEW BUG Bounty Program for Edge
Microsoft is updating it's EDGE bug bounty program. You want to get a chance at microsoft paying you for finding...
Windows 10 September Security Patch Arrives
The September 2016 Patch Tuesday has arrived and with it Knowledge Base Article KB3189866 is providing several security updates and...
Windows 10 Insider Preview 14342 rolls without WiFi Sense
Microsoft announced the release of it's latest Windows 10 Insider Preview release today version 14342. With one notable item missing...
Microsoft Research Technology Predictions for 2016
In 1991, Microsoft Research was created and has now completed 25 years. Recently 16 of the leaders from Technology and...
Patch Tuesday today, Windows 10 Upgrade Day on Thursday
Windows 10 patch was expected Tuesday, but wait until Thursday to release the first feature upgrade for the OS. (more…)