Microsoft stretches support for Windows XP, more than Vista

Merely five days ahead of the long-delayed release of its new Windows Vista operating system, Microsoft on Wednesday announced an Extended Support phase for its Windows XP Home and Media Center editions that will give users an additional five years of support.

Windows Vista and Office 2007, which already have been available for business users since November 30, are scheduled for release to the general public on January 29th. Vista will come pre-installed on new computers PCs bought after the release date.

Microsoft would add two consumer versions of Windows, which were previously only available for Microsoft's enterprise-level products, such as XP Professional to its Extended Support system.

With the addition of Extended Support, the Windows XP Home, Professional and Media Center will remain in what is called "mainstream support" until April of 2009, which includes feature requests, security updates, hotfixes and no-charge support, and would be given an additional five years of Extended Support, matching the support policy provided for Windows XP Professional.

In other words, once the mainstream support period expires, all three products will enter the five-year "extended support" period, which will end in 2014, thirteen years after the first versions of the operating system were launched. Windows XP was introduced in October 2001.

All support for Windows XP Home was originally scheduled to end two years after the release of Vista, meaning at the end of January 2009.

Though, Microsoft has previously extended support for Windows 98, Windows 98 SE and Windows ME by two years, with assistance ending last summer, but the total life support period for Windows XP is a record for the software company; even upcoming Windows Vista is slated to enjoy support for just 10 years, until April 2017. The five-year "extended support" phase of Windows XP will come in effect in May 2009.

During the extended support period, the Redmond, Washington based company would offer security updates and paid support along with a hotfix support agreement, which can be purchased by the users within 90 days of the mainstream support expiring.

"Microsoft has listened to customer feedback and realized that providing security patches for Windows XP Professional, and not extending that support to the XP Home and XP Media Center Editions, was not a consistent approach," a company representative said.

"Microsoft is currently making the change for Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Media Center Edition only, and (it is) taking additional time to evaluate a permanent policy change that would apply to all consumer operating system versions," he added.