One thing I still use my vintage Vista system for is watching and recording TV, and I wonder if the list needs a DVR/PVR category. (Of course there are hardware requirements: a suitable TV tuner of some sort, but hardware is OT here.) Vista Home Premium and Ultimate included Windows Media Center, which in most cases was not really different from Windows XP Media Center Edition. Some later Vista systems shipped with TV Pack 2008, which was almost equivalent to Windows 7's Media Center. (The first page or two of a 2015 Green Button thread might be of interest to some Vista users.) Of course Media Center with TV Pack is only supported insofar as Microsoft/Rovi are still providing electronic program guide data, which might end when support for Windows 7 ends.
For those who are running Vista Basic or Business, or who wouldn't dare to download TV Pack from a third party, or who have TV Pack but are dissatisfied with Rovi's North American EPG data, or who want something that can be used as a "back end" for Kodi (formerly XBMC), one alternative is NextPVR. I recently installed the current 4.2.3 version of NextPVR on Vista, and I'm very satisfied with it. This was the first time I had a reason to install .NET Framework 4.6, which is now a prerequisite. The 4.2.3 installer will install Visual C++ 2017 for you. Newbies may find this software to be not very user-friendly, but MSFN members generally seem to be the kind of users who could handle it. You may have to download one or more decoders, e.g. in North America you are going to need an AC3 audio decoder (perhaps AC3Filter or LAV). Unfortunately there is no free guide data for North America beyond the several hours' worth that can be obtained from over-the-air ATSC broadcasts, so a Schedules Direct subscription is highly desirable.