14 DAY TRIAL // It won’t be long now until Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) will become completely obsolete. In less than one month, Vista SP1 will reach the end of support mark, and although the operating system will continue to run, it’s an extremely bad idea for customers to keep using this particular version of the platform.
Vista SP1 Service Pack Support End Date is July 12, 2011 according to information from the Microsoft Support Lifecycle website.
Customers still using Vista SP1 need to upgrade as soon as possible. The obvious choice is Service Pack 2, which as all upgrades go, is available free of charge.
End of support means that Microsoft will no longer provide updates for Vista SP1. While end users might learn to do without bug fixes, the software giant will also no longer patch vulnerabilities in Vista SP1 after July 12, 2011.
With no security updates, customers will have their copies of Vista completely opened to attacks leveraging new vulnerabilities discovered.
Moving onward, the Redmond company will focus exclusively on Vista SP2. At this point in time there’s no Support End Date for Vista SP2, and in the absence of another service pack, Microsoft will continue to support SP2 until the end of life of Vista itself.
At the same time, customers should also consider that Mainstream Support End Date for Windows Vista is April 10, 2012, with some editions benefiting from Extended Support until no later than April 11, 2017.
With Windows 8 over one year away, it might be a good idea for those users planning a hardware upgrade sooner, to also make the jump to Windows 7.
Microsoft has yet to announce a general availability deadline for Windows 8, but most likely the release will happen sometime in the second half of 2012.
Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 - Five Language Standalone DVD ISO (KB948465) is available for download here.
Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 - Five Language Standalone (KB948465) is available for download here.
Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 - Five Language Standalone for x64-based systems (KB948465) is available for download here.
Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) RTM Build 7601.17514.101119-1850 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) RTM are available for download here.
Windows 7 RTM Enterprise 90-Day Evaluation is available for download here.