good bye Office XP - end of Extended Support
Hello @all,
here come a message from Office Product Group:
Office Product Group discussed some basics of the Office Support Policy in a prior post, explaining how Office versions have a 5 year window of Mainstream Support, and an additional 5 years of Extended Support. One of our releases is now at the end of its life cycle; this post is a reminder to those still using Office XP that the end of support for this version is near.
On July 11, 2011, Office XP will exit the Extended Support period.
Products Released |
General Availability |
Mainstream Support End |
Extended Support End |
Office XP Developer Edition |
5/31/2001 |
7/11/2006 |
7/12/2011 |
Office XP Professional Edition |
5/31/2001 |
7/11/2006 |
7/12/2011 |
Office XP Professional Special Edition |
8/22/2002 |
Not Applicable |
3/9/2005 |
Office XP Standard Edition |
5/31/2001 |
7/11/2006 |
7/12/2011 |
The chart above reflects the end of support for the main Office XP Release versions. The full detail is spelled out under the link.
What does “end of support” mean? The end of support means that we will no longer provide public fixes for the Office XP release. Automatic Updates that ship on “Patch Tuesday” will be discontinued. There will be no effect on installed software; products will still continue to function.
What options do Office XP users have?
Microsoft recommends that customers keep their systems secure by upgrading to the latest, supported product and/or service pack, such as Microsoft Office 2010. Office 2007 Service Pack 2 and Office 2003 Service Pack 3 are also supported for the duration outlined in the Support Lifecycle Product Database.
For our Premier Support customers, a Custom Support program is available. The support team has posted a useful web page about available options for retired product support. They have also published a good FAQ page to explain some of the background on the support policy.
For more information, consult these resources:
· Retired Product Support Options
· Microsoft Services Premier Support
· Microsoft Services Premier Support – Custom Support
· Support Lifecycle Information for all Office Products
· Office XP Support Lifecycle
· Microsoft Support Lifecycle
regards
Patrick