Microsoft finally announced the stop of mainstream support for Windows XP and Office 2003. From April 14, 2009 onwards, they will stop supporting these two products officially and will not release any upgrade pack.

The list contails all versions of Windows XP and Office 2003. Like,

• Windows XP Home
• Windows XP Professional (Both 32bit and 64bit)
• Windows XP Media Center Edition
• Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
• Office 2003 (Both Home and Student)
• Office 2003 Professional

They have set the End of Sales date on June 30, 2010. So, the products released in between will contain the latest updates and all. Currently we have Service Pack 3 for both of the products.

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.

Popularity: 18% [?]