MICROSOFT SUPPORT LIFECYCLE BLOG : Extended Hotfix Support

Extended Support Begins for Windows XP and Continues Until 2014

David Carrington — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 03:25:00 GMT

Recently there has been a fair amount of press coverage regarding the end of Mainstream Support for Windows XP. Released at the tail end of 2001, Windows XP has been a solid hit in the marketplace and there has been some concern about what the move from Mainstream to Extended Support means for customers.

To be clear, Microsoft will continue to support Windows XP until 8 April 2014 – about five years from now. So what are the differences between Mainstream and Extended?

Microsoft divides support for Business and Developer products (including the Windows XP operating system) into two distinct timeframes: Mainstream Support and Extended Support. In a nutshell, Mainstream Support provides both consumers and enterprise customers with a full offering of support including complimentary support, design change requests, security updates and other kinds of updates for the product.

Extended Support does alter the range of support a bit, but for the vast majority of customers the essential core remains the same. For example, customers will continue to receive free security updates and can call in for paid support until the second Tuesday in April of 2014. Enterprise customers with Premier Support who may need non-security hotfixes should consider enrolling in an optional support program named Extended Hotfix Support (EHS). EHS is required by very few customers as the product has matured to the point where design changes are relatively infrequent. For more information on obtaining Extended Hotfix Support, enterprise customers should contact their Microsoft account representative.

Customers who purchased Windows XP pre-installed on their machines will continue to receive support from the manufacturer of their PC (often called the Original Equipment Manufacturer or OEM). Each OEM determines how long they will support products pre-installed on their machines. Therefore, the April 14th transition from Mainstream to Extended Support is most relevant for customers who purchased Windows XP through retailers or volume licensing, a relatively small piece of the XP installed base.

Recommendations for users of Windows XP

To receive support and security updates, you must be running on a supported product and on a supported service pack version. For Windows XP this is currently SP2 or SP3.
Visit Windows Update regularly and confirm you have installed all available security updates. These are critical to keep your machine free from malware.
Rest easy knowing that Microsoft will continue to support Windows XP for another five years!

Thanks for your continued questions and comments. More information on Microsoft’s support policies can also be found on the Microsoft Support Lifecycle website. At Microsoft, we value our customer’s experiences using our products and providing industry-leading support is just one aspect of that commitment.

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

Everything you always wanted to know about Extended Hotfix Support for Daylight Saving Time enrollment but were afraid to ask!

gloriav — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 19:29:00 GMT

The Microsoft Support Lifecycle team gets lots of questions about Extended Hotfix Support for Daylight Saving Time (EHS for DST). Although this offering was initiated in 2007, there still seems to be some confusion around its purpose and how to obtain it.

In an earlier post we talked about Extended Hotfix Support and its purpose: a program that provides customers with the ability to request non-security hotfixes for products in the Extended Support phase of the lifecycle. EHS for DST is slightly different, but related.

What is the history behind Extended Hotfix Support for Daylight Saving Time? Daylight Saving time (DST), and "Summer Time" in much of Europe, is the practice of moving local time forward one hour in the spring and backwards in the autumn. These spring and fall shifts to DST are different between northern and southern hemispheres. The start of DST in the northern hemisphere is in March or April (depending on the country/continent), and ending in October or November. In the southern hemisphere, the changes are the opposite, with DST beginning in October and ending in March or April. Generally, DST is not observed in Asia and Africa, and parts of Central and South America. Unless certain updates are applied to your computer, the time zone settings for your computer's system clock may be incorrect during this four-week period. In particular, you must make sure that both your Windows operating system and your calendar programs are updated.

Daylight Saving Time hotfixes can be applied to your computer to correct the time zone settings that get “out of synch” because of the DST time changes; and are available for products in the Mainstream phase of the lifecycle free of charge. To obtain DST hotfixes for products in the Extended Support phase, customers must purchase Extended Hotfix Support for Daylight Saving Time. EHS for DST entitles them to receive daylight saving time hotfixes for all affected products in the Extended Support phase. The cost is $4,000 USD and the program is open to all Microsoft customers. A list of affected products is available here.

COMMON QUESTIONS:

When will my Extended Hotfix Support for DST contract expire?

All EHS DST support contracts expire on the 31st of December of the calendar year, so any contract signed during 2008 will expire on December 31, 2008.

After I enroll, how do I get the hotfixes?

Once you enroll you will receive access to the Microsoft Connect web site where you can download the appropriate updates.

My company purchased a Extended Hotfix Support for DST contract in October 2007. I thought the contract was good for 12 months. Do I have to purchase another contract to receive 2008 DST updates?

Your contract ended on December 31, 2007. EHS for DST contracts signed on or after January 1, 2008 will end on the 31st of December of the calendar year in which the contract commences; so you must purchase another contract for 2008.

Additional information can be found here:

Let us know if the explanation above helped you better understand Daylight Saving Time Extended Hotfix Support!

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

What is Extended Hotfix Support?

Jared Proudfoot — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 04:25:00 GMT

As I mentioned in an earlier posting, during the Extended Support phase we no longer provide non-security hotfixes without enrollment in the Extended Hotfix Support program. Simply put, the Extended Hotfix Support program provides the ability to request non-security hotfixes for products that are in the Extended Support phase.

Remember, Extended Hotfix Support (EHS) only provides the opportunity to request a non-security hotfix for a new bug discovered during the Extended Support phase. It has no impact on a customer’s ability to request support, security updates, or other non-security hotfixes created during the Mainstream Support phase.

To enroll in EHS, customers must already have Premier Support. In addition, enrollment in the program must occur within the first 90 days of the product entering the Extended Support phase. If the customer misses this deadline, there may not be an opportunity to enroll in EHS again.

The only exception to the 90 day enrollment rule is for customers with Software Assurance (SA). Customers with Software Assurance on select products are eligible for a benefit which includes the program fee for Extended Hotfix Support and allows enrollment at any time. Essentially, this means that the SA customers only need to sign the appropriate paperwork and pay the per hotfix fee. The products that are included in this benefit are: Microsoft Office Professional, Microsoft Windows Client, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM), Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS), and Microsoft Windows Server.

Pricing for Extended Hotfix Support consists of an annual program fee, plus an additional fee for each non-security hotfix they receive. Non-security hotfixes produced during the Extended Support phase will not be made available to other customers in the program, without enrollment in EHS or the per hotfix fee. This is to ensure that all customers are treated equal and are being charged the same fees for each hotfix.

Whew… That’s a lot of stuff to cover. I hope it makes the program easier to understand, though. :)

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

An explanation of the Extended Support phase for Business & Developer products

Jared Proudfoot — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:04:00 GMT

Extended Support is the second phase of the Support Lifecycle for Business & Developer products. The key differences between the Mainstream Support phase and Extended Support phase are that the “no-charge” support options are no longer available and that we no longer provide new non-security hotfixes. This means that customers will need to open paid support cases (such as Premier, Pro or Pay Per Incident cases) to obtain support for their product. For those customers who require new non-security hotfixes during the Extended Support phase, a special program called Extended Hotfix Support (EHS) is available. I’ll save the detailed discussion about EHS for another posting.

One of the important things to note is that Extended Support is still a publicly supported phase. Many Premier and Pro customers who already open paid cases with Microsoft will notice little difference in the support that is provided in this phase. They will continue to be able to open paid cases, receive security updates, obtain support assistance from their Technical Account Manager, etc… In reality, few customers need Extended Hotfix Support unless they have a history of requesting or requiring non-security hotfixes.

Like the Mainstream Support phase, it is important to note that support is only provided at a supported service pack level.

The Extended Support phase is provided for a minimum of 5 years or 2 years after the second successor product is released, whichever is longer. This means that the Extended Support phase may be extended to longer than 5 years, if the second follow-on product release is delayed. The basic reasoning behind this policy is that we don’t want to completely end support for a product unless there are 2 newer versions of the product for customers to migrate to.

At the end of the Extended Support phase, Business & Developer products are no longer publicly supported. This means that there is no more paid support, no support assistance and no further security updates. Customers are highly encouraged to move a supported product as soon as possible.

Please tell us what you think! Does this better explain the Extended Support phase? What can we do better to explain this on our main site?

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