Jul 4, 2011 06:43 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft will pull the plug on the first upgrade to Windows Vista in approximately a week, per the company’s official Support Lifecycle for the release. The Redmond giant traditionally ends support for a service pack no more than two years after a superseding upgrade has been released.

It is the case of Windows Vista Service Pack 1, with Microsoft having provided Vista users with the RTM bits for Service Pack 2 well over two years ago, in May 2009.

Over the past months I kept track of Vista SP1’s imminent death, as Softpedia users know, and this should qualify as a last call to make the jump to SP2, since support for SP1 will be dropped next week.

Vista SP1 Service Pack Support End Date is July 12, 2011 according to the software giant. Service Pack Support End Date is not synonymous with end of support for Vista however.

Provided that customers upgrade to Vista SP2, they will be able to continue running the operating system for a few more years at least.

Even if they decide to stick with Vista SP1, the platform version will also keep running, although such an option is not advisable, especially since with the end of support deadline, Microsoft will no longer provide updates for the service pack, not even patches for Critical security vulnerabilities.

Vista users are bound to have found memories of Vista SP1, since it was the service pack that literally fixed their operating system, making it usable.

By comparison, SP2 is a smaller upgrade, especially since the Redmond company’s focus had already shifted for the most part to the development of Windows 7.

Vista’s usage share continues to dip, and is close to dropping under the 9% mark, but since this operating system has never received much love from users, there aren’t that many people sad to see it fade away.

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.