US-CERT alerts Windows Vista users that they need to upgrade

[Drak3]

20 minutes ago, Djole123 said:

You do need to remember that, even tho Windows Vista is so bad and sit, there is over 5 million users still running it. That is worrying.

 

15 minutes ago, PCGuy_5960 said:

At least XP was stable....

Vista was stable when ran on hardware that was released along side it, that was actually strong enough to run it.

The only reason Vista has as bad a rep as it does, is because OEMs decided to install Vista on hardware that was just enough to run XP.

[Godlygamer23]

Just now, Drak3 said:

Vista was stable when ran on hardware that was released along side it, that was actually strong enough to run it.

The only reason Vista has as bad a rep as it does, is because OEMs decided to install Vista on hardware that was just enough to run XP.

I remember my Toshiba laptop only had 1GB of RAM. It frequently paged to the hard drive. 

[SpaceGhostC2C]

I don't really understand:

• What is news here? MS announced end of support dates for Vista (and even 7) long ago.
• Is US-CERT regurgitating old news news?
• Why must Vista users stop using it? It's not like their computers will turn to pumpkins at that date.
• No new patches doesn't mean less security. It means no fixes for vulnerabilities discovered in the future. Assuming, of course, there's anyone left looking for new vulnerabilities.

All in all, this means pretty much nothing to the few users who for whatever reason are sticking to Vista. I mean, if they actually have any reason to use Vista, I doubt US-CERT reading out loud an old MS announcement will outweigh that reason.

[79wjd]

3 minutes ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

Assuming, of course, there's anyone left looking for new vulnerabilities.

Considering how long it takes for a lot of businesses to update infrastructure, there is always going to be a reason to look for vulnerabilities in old/unsupported software (e.g. a couple years ago the Navy was still using XP for something). Now, vista never reeached the level of support that XP did in the business world, but nonetheless, my point still stands. 

[Drak3]

3 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

I remember my Toshiba laptop only had 1GB of RAM. It frequently paged to the hard drive. 

Something to keep in mind is that before Vista, Microsoft's minimum requirements were mostly just for the OS itself. After Vista, Microsoft artificially bloated the CPU and RAM requirements so that most basic programs would run without running into issues of running out of resources, just to avoid another Vista debacle.

 

If your laptop was frequently paging to the HDD, then you probably had a program or some bloat that ate up enough RAM for that to happen. My first Acer laptop, and my dad's old desktop, both only had 1GB of RAM and neither paged to the HDD all that often.

[Godlygamer23]

Just now, Drak3 said:

Something to keep in mind is that before Vista, Microsoft's minimum requirements were mostly just for the OS itself. After Vista, Microsoft artificially bloated the CPU and RAM requirements so that most basic programs would run without running into issues of running out of resources, just to avoid another Vista debacle.

 

If your laptop was frequently paging to the HDD, then you probably had a program or some bloat that ate up enough RAM for that to happen. My first Acer laptop, and my dad's old desktop, both only had 1GB of RAM and neither paged to the HDD all that often.

At idle, about 900MB of RAM was consumed. 

[Trik'Stari]

Windows Vista users need to update?

 

[Drak3]

Just now, Godlygamer23 said:

At idle, about 900MB of RAM was consumed. 

Willing to bet that it was fairly well hidden bloat, or a less than optimal driver(s).

[Godlygamer23]

Just now, Drak3 said:

Willing to bet that it was fairly well hidden bloat, or a less than optimal driver(s).

I wouldn't doubt it - I was probably using Toshiba's version of Windows Vista, which could've had things in it that I didn't know about.

[Drak3]

Just now, Godlygamer23 said:

I wouldn't doubt it - I was probably using Toshiba's version of Windows Vista, which could've had things in it that I didn't know about.

I was fortunate enough to have had a refurb with a clean install. Unfortunately, the mainboard died less than a year later, becoming the first part of the reason I don't but used hardware anymore.

[Castdeath97]

16 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

 

Vista was stable when ran on hardware that was released along side it, that was actually strong enough to run it.

The only reason Vista has as bad a rep as it does, is because OEMs decided to install Vista on hardware that was just enough to run XP.

Don't forget the shovelware! That had an impact for sure as well.

[NumLock21]

MS under estimate the minimum requirements for Vista, so that left a bad taste for almost everyone. When you got the right hardware, it runs like a champ. I do miss some of the games that came with Vista like Chess Titans, Purple Place, and Ultimate Extra Tinker.

 

 

 

 

[SansVarnic]

32 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

MS under estimate the minimum requirements for Vista, so that left a bad taste for almost everyone. When you got the right hardware, it runs like a champ. I do miss some of the games that came with Vista like Chess Titans, Purple Place, and Ultimate Extra Tinker.

 

 

 

 

I loved that game.

They need to bring it back in some kind of retro game pack or something.

[NumLock21]

Just now, SansVarnic said:

I loved that game.

They need to bring it back in some kind of retro game pack or something.

Well you can download that game.

http://www.intowindows.com/download-microsoft-tinker-game-for-windows-7-vista-xp/

 

Some have problems installing. Here is a 3rd party thread about it.

https://www.sevenforums.com/gaming/47348-download-microsoft-tinker-game-windows-7-vista-x.html

[SansVarnic]

1 minute ago, NumLock21 said:

Well you can download that game.

http://www.intowindows.com/download-microsoft-tinker-game-for-windows-7-vista-xp/

 

Some have problems installing. Here is a 3rd party thread about it.

https://www.sevenforums.com/gaming/47348-download-microsoft-tinker-game-windows-7-vista-x.html

Ah, gonna have to tinker to get it to work on WinX.

Thanks for the link.  

[Sniperfox47]

Does this surprises anyone. End of extended support, by the normal 10 year window, should have ended back at the end of January. For an OS nobody uses, they've supported it a few months longer than they initially commited to when it launched.

[Sauron]

1 hour ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

"Lemme run an OS as demanding as Windows 7 on a Pentium 4"

*more demanding

[Tieox]

Only know of a two people running Vista, both just use it for email and nothing more.  Likely won't stop using it till the computer eventually dies.

 

[Misanthrope]

2 hours ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

"Lemme run an OS as demanding as Windows 7 on a Pentium 4"

Meh, a bit but only on RAM though. I remember that 4gb of ram and 64bit os was not too common back then but I never had slowdowns with that much.

[Nowak]

2 hours ago, Delicieuxz said:

Vista is a great OS. It never gave me an issue, though it gave me what might be my favourite Windows experience.

Vista was alright. Only issue I really had with it wasn't even the fault of the OS, I got a rootkit.

[vorticalbox]

2 hours ago, Drak3 said:

 

Vista was stable when ran on hardware that was released along side it, that was actually strong enough to run it.

The only reason Vista has as bad a rep as it does, is because OEMs decided to install Vista on hardware that was just enough to run XP.

i had an athlonx2 and 1GB when i git my first oc, prebuilt and running vista. The sata drivers for my chipset were very broken so when I first got it it would randomly blue screen took me weeks to get the update to fix it as it kept blue screen while updating. 

 

I also blue screened why I plugged in an SD card reader. My memories of vista are far from "stable"

[SammoFS]

Vista in 2006, windows 7 in 2009 (release dates) Windows 7 no longer support on 2020??? (I hope not Windows 7 is easy for me lol)

EDIT: 

Windows 7*

Service Pack 1

January 14, 2020

                                                                                                      (Extended support date expiry.)

Windows 8 in 2023 and windows 10 in 2025.

[corsairian]

Just switch to Windows 7. Its basically a more polished version of Vista. Im still running 7 and will be for a while I think. 

[Drak3]

7 minutes ago, vorticalbox said:

i had an athlonx2 and 1GB when i git my first oc, prebuilt and running vista. The sata drivers for my chipset were very broken so when I first got it it would randomly blue screen took me weeks to get the update to fix it as it kept blue screen while updating. 

 

I also blue screened why I plugged in an SD card reader. My memories of vista are far from "stable"

Bad drivers =/= unstable OS. Unless I can excuse my inability to install Windows 7 SP1 from a factory disk onto an NVMe drive as an inherent problem with Windows 7 as a whole as well?

Also, Athlon X2 CPUs were in production a year before the OS was released to production. That's not hardware that was:

2 hours ago, Drak3 said:

 released along side it

but hardware made for Windows XP. Hell, some Athlon X2 models were discontinued before Vista even came out.

[LAwLz]

2 hours ago, Drak3 said:

The only reason Vista has as bad a rep as it does, is because OEMs decided to install Vista on hardware that was just enough to run XP.

That was far from the only reason.

It was one of the big reasons, but not the only one.

 

Some other reasons why Vista got a lot of hate:

1) UAC was extremely aggressive. Microsoft tweaked it a lot for Windows 7 and made it bearable.

2) A lot of driver models changed so at launch, and quite a long time afterwards, drivers were complete shit or non-existing for a lot of things.

3) Windows Vista actually had a lot of issues at release, and it took several months (we're talking like 6-7 months, not 1-2) before a lot of them were ironed out. Issues like extremely slow file transfers, and deleting files.

4) Even on hardware that was enough for Vista, XP was just hell of a lot faster. Like 20-30% faster. You wouldn't say no to a 20% performance increase, right?

 

Of course, I expect you to respond with something like "that's not Microsoft's fault! It's all the users' faults and/or hardware manufacturers!" and I don't agree. For some things like poor drivers, the hardware manufacturers were responsible for making it work, but you can't expect miracles either. When you change a driver model like Microsoft did then hardware manufacturers will need some time to adapt. It's not really anyone's fault, but it affected customers negatively at the time regardless, and it contributed to the hate Vista got.