Every other year, Microsoft gets it right with their operating system, Windows. If you can remember back far enough, Windows ME was terrible, Windows XP was a work of art. Windows Vista was terrible, Windows 7 was fantastic. Windows 8 was pulverized in the media, mainly due to it’s steep learning curve, which they have fixed or improved with Windows 10. Yet, 9% of the companies surveyed by Spiceworks still have at least one computer running Windows Vista. More than half of the companies surveyed also have at least one computer running Windows XP, which Microsoft stopped supporting in 2014.
This week Microsoft will no longer support the Windows Vista operating system, and you might not be clear on exactly what that means. When Microsoft cuts off support for a particular product it means that they will no longer release security updates for that product. This could mean very bad things for your business. When a security flaw is found, it spreads like wildfire throughout the world, and malicious attackers exploit that information and create software that will prey upon the security flaw. Depending on the flaw found, you could open your business up to a serious attack just because you have one computer that still runs Vista or even XP.
To protect your business network you need to make sure you are always up to date on your software and operating systems. You may be running proprietary software that will only work on a certain operating system, which is forcing you to stick with this older OS. Your managed IT support provider can try to suggest an alternate software platform to use, or they can help you secure your system to isolate the computer that needs to run the software. Just know, the system that is still running the older operating system will never be fully secure.