Support Life-Cycle Phases

Microsoft divides a product’s life cycle into three phases—Mainstream, Extended, and Online Self-Help. During the Mainstream phase, which generally lasts for five years, Microsoft offers the broadest set of product support options and distribution channels, as well as the most extensive software update (patches, service packs, etc.) policy. In subsequent phases—Extended (which typically lasts for five years beyond the end of the Mainstream phase) and Online Self-Help (which lasts for at least one year beyond the end of Extended support)—distribution channels, product support options, and software update policy become more restrictive.

This chart summarizes the three phases as they apply to business and development software, which includes desktop OSs such as Windows XP, desktop business applications such as Office 2003, server OS such as Windows Server 2003, server-based applications such as SQL Server 2000 and Exchange 2003, and development tools such as Visual Studio 2003.