Microsoft have been pretty clear with their support policies when it comes to Windows. The general rule that they’ve followed is that consumer editions of Windows get 5 years support, while business versions get an extended 5 years on top of that. This would mean that Windows Vista will be losing support for consumers on April 10, 2012 and Windows 7 on January 13th, 2015.

But now Microsoft have changed their mind and extended support for both Windows 7 and Windows Vista consumer editions to 10 years as well. Microsoft did not make a whole lot of noise about this change and it was only brought to light recently when Ed Bott uncovered details of the change on the Microsoft Japan page.

However what’s still confusing is that Microsoft haven’t actually updated the details on their US website. If you go to look up a products life cycle information such as Windows 7 is still has the old support expiry dates. Maybe Microsoft just haven’t got around to updating that as of yet.

Fear not though as they have confirmed with Zdnet by email that this policy change is correct.

Microsoft is updating the Support Lifecycle policy for Windows desktop operating systems, including Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

The update will provide a more consistent and predictable experience for customers using  Microsoft Windows operating systems across OEM, consumer and business editions.

Microsoft still requires that customers have the most current Service Pack installed in order to continue to receive updates.

Through this update, customers who remain on the most current supported service pack will be eligible to receive both Mainstream and Extended Support, for a total of 10 years. 

So the new support expiry dates are as follows:

Windows XP   4/8/2014

Windows Vista   4/11/2017

Windows 7   1/14/2020

This is good news for everyone really and it’s good to see that Microsoft are willing to continue to support its older operating systems even with Windows 8 coming out.

Source:

Zdnet