Product Life-Cycle Phases and Options

Support for enterprise software versions is retired in a series of phases. During a support phase, Microsoft is not obligated to offer security patches or any other forms of support, but the life cycle guidelines set pricing and availability for any support it does offer.

During the Mainstream phase, Microsoft offers the broadest set of product support options and maintains the product with hotfixes. Service packs are generally released in this phase, but the company might stop releasing service packs for a product well before Mainstream support ends. In the Extended support phase, Microsoft provides support for a fee (including custom hotfixes, if included in the customer’s support contract) and free hotfixes for some security vulnerabilities. However, Microsoft generally does not provide free nonsecurity hotfixes and does not issue further service packs.

After the end of Extended support, Microsoft will normally only provide product support under paid custom support contracts. These contracts are expensive, time-limited, and accepted at Microsoft’s discretion. Microsoft also sometimes imposes conditions, such as requiring customers to present a documented migration plan away from the covered version of the product. Consequently, organizations face considerable risk and costs if they continue to run products such as Windows XP and Office 2003 after they have left Extended support.