Do you still have a laptop or desktop PC that’s running Windows Vista? If so, you’ll soon have to decide whether want to keep using it or not.
Microsoft officially ended support for Windows XP about a year ago, and Vista is scheduled to get the boot on April 11 of this year.
What does this change mean for Vista users?
Well, your PC won’t simply stop working on April 11. In fact, you won’t notice any change at all from your perspective as a user. But there’s a problem…
After that date Microsoft will no longer release security updates for your Windows Vista installation. That means your system will be at high risk of virus infections and other forms of malicious attacks.
You’ll be able to mitigate the dangers somewhat by keeping your anti-virus software up to date, but your PC will still be at high risk because many exploits aren’t actually viruses at all – they are pieces of code that are designed to exploit the inevitable security holes that hackers eventually find in any Windows version’s code base.
That’s why Microsoft releases security updates in the first place – to patch security holes as quickly as possible after they are discovered.
Now that the preliminaries are out of the way, lets discuss what you can do if you wish to keep using Windows Vista after April 11, 2017. You basically have the following options:
1 – Keep using Vista as you always have and take your chances.
If all you do online is visit informational websites that don’t ask you for any personal or financial info and don’t require you to log in to an account, you can keep using your Vista-based machine with no worries whatsoever.
However, if you use your PC for anything that requires you to log in and/or input any type of sensitive information, I strongly suggest that you ditch Windows Vista and move on to something else.
2 – Upgrade your system from Vista to Windows 10. (#ad)
3 – Ditch Windows altogether and replace it with Linux. If you’ve never used Linux, it’s awesome, and it’s free! Just be aware of the caveats I mentioned in the post I linked to above.
Of course you can always simply buy a new computer. (#ad)
That being said, I’m a firm believer in using older hardware as long as it makes sense to keep doing so. After all, there are plenty of PCs out there running Windows Vista that still have lots of life left in them!
Bottom line: Depending on how you use your Windows Vista based PC, you’ll need to decide how you wish to proceed with it before April 11.