Updated: July 9, 2020 (February 2, 2004)

Product Support Life-Cycle Phases

As managing vice president, Rob Helm covers Microsoft collaboration and content management. His 25-plus years of experience analyzing Microsoft’s technology... more

The chart below summarizes the three phases as they apply to business and development software, which includes all of the products discussed in this report.

The “Resources” section of this report also provides references to material that explains Microsoft’s product life-cycle support policies in more detail.

Life-Cycle Phase	Normal Duration	Product Support Options	Software Updates
Mainstream	Five years from the date of general availability	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 patch rollups (free)
Extended	Two years from the end of the Mainstream phase	Premier support and other fee-based product support options Online support information	Security-related hotfixes (free) Non-security-related hotfixes (requires fee-based contract)
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