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• October 17, 2002 •
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 takes effect October 15 and 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, Windows 95, and Windows 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 2 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 | Entering Extended phase | Entering 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 Millennium Edition | December 31, 2003 | December 31, 2004 | December 31, 2005 |
| Windows 2000 Professional | March 31, 2005 | March 31, 2007 | March 31, 2008 |
| Windows XP Home Edition | December 31, 2006 | December 31, 2006 | December 31, 2007 |
| Windows XP Professional | December 31, 2006 | December 31, 2008 | December 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, except where local laws and market conditions dictate otherwise. In such cases, Microsoft offers custom support relationships that go beyond the extended support phase. These custom support relationships may include assisted support and hotfix-level support, and may extend beyond 10 years from the date a product becomes generally available. Strategic partners of Microsoft may also offer support beyond the extended support phase. Customers and business and industry partners should contact their account team or local Microsoft representative for more information.
The new lifecycle policy takes effect October 15, 2002, and applies to most products currently available via retail purchase or volume licensing, and most future products.
For more information check the Product Life-Cycle Policies Web site.
