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End of Support for Office XP Products

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We 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

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    @Activation, Activation for Office will continue to work after the July end date for support. We have no plans to disable the Activation servers. If you or other customers encounter problems activating Office XP, please contact Microsoft support (http://support.microsoft.com) for help. No update to Office XP is needed or planned at this time.

  • Anonymous
    March 20, 2011
    And what will happen to Office XP activation? Office XP is the first Microsoft mainstream product that requires activation. Microsoft HAS TO ship an update for it to not require activation at its end of life. Microsoft Money required activation and when support was terminated Microsoft created an update to require activation for it. If Office XP activation stops working after July 11, 2011 and I want to reinstall Office on a clean Windows install, I won't be able to. I will sue Microsoft if an activation patch is not shipped.

  • Anonymous
    March 22, 2011
    I meant "Microsoft Money required activation and when support was terminated Microsoft created an update to NOT require activation for it"

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2011
    Okay then it's no problem. Wonder if the activation servers will be pulled some day.

  • Anonymous
    November 21, 2016
    Hi, trying to make a fresh installation of office XP. The activation through internet failed, and same result by phone.How should i proceed?

  • Anonymous
    June 03, 2017
    Does this mean the Microsoft Word 2002 will be end of support?