Today, Tuesday, April 10th, 2012 is the day that Microsoft is ending the mainstream support for Windows Vista after five years of its release, and for Microsoft Office 2007. However, because Windows XP still a big player in the operating system world, all support is set to be terminated in about two years, together with Microsoft Office 2003.
As reported by Ars Technica, the software giant has two stages for the support lifecycle of its products:
- Mainstream: The product gets all sorts of updates, security, stability, fixes, and seldom features.
- Extended: The product only gets security updates and business have to pay for bug fixes.
This means that Windows XP and Microsoft Office 2003 are in the Extended lifecycle until the end of 2014. Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 on the other hand has just joined the Extended stage and their limited support are set to be terminated in early 2017.
For more information, you can visit Microsoft’s lifecycle web page.
[poll id=”30″]
Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 15 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 21 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].