Windows Vista SP1 no longer supported. Should you buy Windows 7?

One marketing strategy I’ve seen from Microsoft tends to confuse people and it happens every time a service pack reaches the end of its support life. I saw this a while ago with Windows XP and when I read the news item, it really made me feel that Windows XP support was ending. It wasn’t. It was only for those with an older service pack. The following is a section from the Microsoft blog.

I wanted to remind folks that as of today July 12th, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is no longer supported. We recommend folks look at upgrading to Windows 7... Read More

As we can see there is a recommendation to get people to move to Windows 7 and thus a sale for Microsoft. But there is no need for any purchase. Simply upgrade to Service Pack 2.

If you don’t need to upgrade to Windows 7 there really isn’t much point. Simply upgrade your computer, whether it be Windows XP or Vista to the latest Service Pack. For those using Windows XP don’t get concerned. Windows XP reportedly will continue to be supported until 2014. By this time your computer will be nearly another three years older and Windows 8 will have well and truly arrived, perhaps even Windows 9. There isn’t anything wrong in skipping operating systems. If your computer is working for you and upgrading to later operating system doesn’t give you anything more, then why spend the money. In addition the money spent buying an upgrade, because they really are quite expensive, can go a long way towards part paying for the cost of new system complete with the latest operating system.

During my time supporting clients I’ve rarely upgraded clients’ operating systems to a different version. In fact can only think of at most about three-five computers so the clients machines were all on Windows XP and that’s out of many hundreds of computers. The computer usually reaches end-of-life before the operating system.

There are good business reasons to upgrade, such as having all users on the same operating system, and some good reasons not to upgrade, such as costly peripherals (printers, scanners, cameras, etc.) not working. So make sure if you upgrade that you’re doing it for the right reason rather than Microsoft’s posts which aren’t really explaining all the options a user has.

- Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au