• Chart: Complete Windows 2000 Support Life Cycle

Licenses and disk kits will be phased out for Windows 2000 server and client versions over the next two years. While customers will still be able to get licenses for these products by exercising downgrade rights on newer products (such as Windows Server 2003), customers should make sure they have disks for the Windows 2000 products that they intend to deploy after disk kits are discontinued.

The publishing of these dates provides the final piece of information regarding the support life cycle for Windows 2000 (see the chart "Complete Windows 2000 Support Life Cycle"). Still missing, however, is a formula or standard set of rules for license retirement to help customers understand how long licenses will be available for other Microsoft products as they near the end of their support life cycles.

For more information on product support life cycles, see support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=lifecycle.

For more information on Windows 2000 Server product availability, see www.microsoft.com/windows2000/server/evaluation/availability/faq.asp.