| May 24, 2004 |
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Business and development products will get full support for a longer period under product life-cycle changes that Microsoft announced in May 2004.
Microsoft divides a product's life cycle into three phases: Mainstream (full support), Extended (limited support), and Online Self-Help (no support other than Web documentation). The chart below summarizes the three phases as they apply to business and development software under the most recent rules.
The rules now guarantee full support for a product version until two years after the successor version ships, ensuring that companies have at least two years to upgrade. In addition, the new rules guarantee Extended support for five years, versus two years previously. This implies full support for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 into 2008, with paid support and free security hotfixes into 2013.
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Life-Cycle Phase
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Normal Duration
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Product Support Options
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Software Updates
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| Mainstream |
Five years from the date of general availability, or until two years after release of a successor version, whichever is longer. |
- Premier support and other fee-based product support options
- Free incident support (per warranty)
- Online support information
|
- Security-related hotfixes (free)
- Non-security-related hotfixes (free)
- Service Packs and hotfix rollups (free)
|
| Extended |
Five years from the end of the Mainstream phase |
- Premier support and other fee-based product support options
- Online support information
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- Security-related hotfixes (free)
- Non-security-related hotfixes (requires fee-based contract)
|
| Online Self-Help |
Ten-plus years from the date of general availability |
- Online support information
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For certain products with large installed bases (such as Windows NT 4.0), Microsoft might continue to offer free security-related hotfixes |
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