Just a quick reminder to Neowin users, both Windows XP and Office 2003 will leave mainstream support and enter extended support on April 14, 2009. This applies to the following Windows XP editions:
- Windows XP Home
- Windows XP Pro 32-bit and 64-bit
- Windows XP Media Center Edition
- Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
However, for ultra-low cost PCs like netbooks, Microsoft has set June 30, 2010 as the End-of-Sales date even though the general End-of-Sales date for Windows XP was February 28, 2009.
The last Service Pack for Office 2003, SP3 was released in September 2007. The Outlook 2003 Junk Email Filter will continue to receive updates with new junk email definitions through the end of the extended support phase.
The mainstream support phase for Microsoft products usually runs for 5 years after the release of the product. As per the Microsoft Support Lifecycle, mainstream support delivers free fixes for security patches and other bug fixes to everyone. Extended support delivers security updates to all users, but nonsecurity hot fixes are to be provided only to companies that have signed support contracts (purchase of Extended Hotfix Support Agreement and per-fix fees) with Microsoft. Self-help online support will continue to be available for a minimum of 12 months after the product reaches the end of its support lifecycle.
Extended support for both Windows XP and Office 2003 ends on April 8, 2014.