Before we spend some time talking about the Extended Hotfix Support program for DST, I thought it would be a good idea to address a number of questions we have recently received regarding the release of MS08-067.  Most of the questions that we have received have been regarding older, unsupported products and services packs.  We’ve received questions regarding Windows 95, Windows NT 3.51, Windows NT 4.0, Windows XP SP1 and Windows 2000 SP3, just to name a few.

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Under the Support Lifecycle policy, once a product reaches the end of support we no longer provide any support for that product.  What does that mean?  Basically, this means we stop providing any new information or assisted support for the product.  After the end of support, we leave the knowledgebase information online for a minimum of 12 months.  We do not provide security updates, any assisted support (telephone support), nor assistance through Premier or Professional support, etc…

From a security point of view, running an unsupported version should be considered a significant security risk in itself.  Since Microsoft does not produce security updates or provide any type of assisted support for unsupported versions, customers are taking a significant risk by running these versions within their environment.  If you encounter any types of issues with an unsupported product, there are no Microsoft resources available to help.

Remember, to continue to receive support and security updates, you must be running on a supported product and on a supported service pack version.  More information on this can also be found on our website at https://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/.

Thanks for your continued questions and comments.  We’ll get back to the DST discussion within the next week or so.

*This posting is provided “AS IS” with no warranties, and confers no rights.*