Microsoft’s support options?
In your pages you sometimes Q signal the looming end of support for a product, especially Microsoft ones. I suppose this makes sense given that company’s dominance of PCS. However, I’m curious about some of the terminology. For example, when so-called Mainstream Support ends I understand a product slips into Extended Support. What does that mean? And how does that differ from Extended Security Updates, which I believe is yet another tier? James Stokes
A As ever with Microsoft the answer is complicated. So, simplifying slightly, from the perspective of the typical PC user, what matters most is the date for the end of what Microsoft calls Mainstream Support. After this point in time, Microsoft will no longer update a product. It then enters Extended Support, where only security updates will be issued.
These are made available to all, until the end of the Extended Support date. As well, Microsoft will still provide paid-for support on an ad hoc basis, including to consumers.
Microsoft operates a search tool for specific product ‘lifecycles’, at www.snipca.com/45090. This is where things get a little murkier.
Depending on the product, and after the end of the Extended Support phase, Microsoft sometimes offers Extended Security Updates (ESUS). These are for large commercial customers who, for whatever reason, are not ready to stop using a particular product. They’re available for up to three years after the end of Extended Support. As an everyday consumer, you cannot purchase ESUS.
However, if as a result of an ESU Microsoft fixes some critical bug, the company will sometimes make that fix available to all – but it makes no commitment to do so.
Windows 7, for example, officially reached the end of its Extended Support phase in January 2020. Theoretically, from that point on, critical updates were available only to commercial customers paying for an ESU subscription. However, two ‘Esu-only’ patches were made available to consumers after this date, no payment required.
Want to know the difference between technical terms? Email noproblem@ computeractive.co.uk