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Microsoft Standardizes Support Lifecycle

by Arie Slob

Hello Windows users,

This week Microsoft announced a change to its Support Lifecycle policy, in order to provide customers with a clear and consistent framework for product support.

Lori Moore, Corporate Vice President for Microsoft Product Support Services defined the terms of the Microsoft Support Lifecycle: "The Support Lifecycle policy is a standardization of Microsoft's product support policies. The policy applies to most products currently available via retail purchase or volume licensing, and future release products. For business and development software, the new Support Lifecycle policy provides mainstream support for a minimum of five years from the date of a product's general availability with an option to purchase extended support during the two years following mainstream support, provided the customer is on the latest or immediately preceding (if still supported) service pack. For most consumer, multimedia and hardware products, a minimum of five years mainstream support will be provided from the date of a product's general availability. Consumer products that have a new version released each year -- such as Money, Encarta, Streets & Trips, and Picture it! -- will receive three years mainstream support. These products are not eligible for extended support. Additionally, most products will receive at least eight years of online self-help support."

Originally the Windows Desktop Product Life-Cycle Guidelines were published in February 2001. With this new publication Microsoft made several changes to these guidelines. Under the new terms, Microsoft will declare "End of Life" for all MS-DOS versions, Windows 3.xx, 95, and NT 3.5x on December 31, 2002. This means that those products will no longer be eligible for any form of support, including the online Microsoft Knowledge base. The only major change has been to the date that Windows 2000 enters its "Extended phase": in 2001 it was announced at March 31, 2003, but this has been extended by two full years to March 31, 2005.

Also new is the addition of Windows operating system components (Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player) to the Product Life-Cycle Guidelines.

Windows XP has also been added to the list:

Operating System	Extended phase	Non-Supported phase	End of Life
Windows 98 / 98 SE	June 30, 2002	June 30, 2003	June 30, 2004
Windows NT 4.xx	June 30, 2002	June 30, 2003	June 30, 2004
Windows ME	Dec. 31, 2003	Dec. 31, 2004	Dec. 31, 2005
Windows 2000 Pro.	March 31, 2005	March 31, 2007	March 31, 2008
Windows XP HE	Dec. 31, 2006	Dec. 31, 2006	Dec. 31, 2007
Windows XP Pro.	Dec. 31, 2006	Dec. 31, 2008	Dec. 31, 2009

Mainstream support includes all the support options and programs that customers receive today, such as no-charge incident support, paid incident support, support charged on an hourly basis, support for warranty claims and hotfix support. Extended support may include support charged on an hourly basis and paid hotfix support. In order to receive hotfix support, an extended hotfix support contract must be purchased within the first 90 days following the end of the mainstream support phase. Microsoft will not accept requests for warranty support, design changes or new features during the extended phase. Online self-help resources provide customers the ability to query the Knowledge Base and utilize resources on http://microsoft.com/support to find answers to their technical questions. Under the new Microsoft Life-Cycle Support Policies operating systems designed for consumers do not have an Extended phase (because consumers do not submit requests for extended hotfixes).

According to Microsoft, these changes are effective worldwide -- from October 15, 2002 --, except where local laws and market conditions dictate otherwise. Customers and business and industry partners should contact their account team or local Microsoft representative for more information.

For more information check the Product Life-Cycle Policies Web site.

Give your comments on this article.

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