Official line
End of extended support; customers moved to later Windows releases.
Microsoft · Operating Systems · Product
Windows Vista
Discontinued
2007–2017 · 10 years in market
Launched
Jan 30, 2007
Discontinued
Apr 11, 2017
Cause of death
Replaced by successor
Evidence
Unsourced
What was it?
The Windows release that made UAC infamous and sent enterprises racing back to XP. Succeeded in the market by Windows 7.
Why it died
Editorial reading
Drivers, DRM, and permission prompts made a generation of users distrust the upgrade. 7 was the apology tour.
Founder takeaway
A platform release that fights the user’s machine will be remembered as the villain, not the future.
Sources
Unsourced — editorial reading
No primary source is attached yet. Treat the interpretation as editorial, not a citation.
What replaced it
Microsoft
Windows 7
The version people actually wanted Vista to be.
Related graves
Same company, category, or cause of death.
Microsoft
RIP
Internet Explorer
1995–2022 · 27 yrs
The browser that won the first war and lost the next three. Retired in favor of Chromium Edge.
Developer Tools/Replaced by successor+41
Microsoft
RIP
Windows Live Messenger
1999–2013 · 14 yrs
MSN Messenger’s last name. The after-school chat of a generation, retired for Skype.
Messaging/Replaced by successor+34
Microsoft
RIP
InfoPath
2003–2015 · 12 yrs
Enterprise form designer. Power users loved it; Microsoft wanted Power Apps.
Productivity/Replaced by successor+32
Microsoft
RIP
FrontPage
1997–2006 · 9 yrs
WYSIWYG web editor that taught a generation to make sites — and to generate infamous HTML.
Developer Tools/Replaced by successor+24