This week, Microsoft revealed its plans to extend the support dates of both Windows Vista and Windows 7 by several years. The company was initially planning to support Vista until April of 2012, but this has been pushed back to 2017. This means that users still on the aging version of Windows can expect to see patch updates, but no new feature additions after April of this year.

On the Windows 7 side of things, Microsoft will be offering "extended support" of the newest version of the desktop operating system until January 14, 2020. This date has been extended from the initial January of 2015. Users of Windows 7 can expect to see new feature additions up until January 2015, and after that only patch updates.

Microsoft is planning to launch Windows 8, which is currently under development and testing with consumers, before the end of 2012.