MS Products Lifecycle

[FanJ]

On the following links you can read more about the MS Products Lifecycle and the dates on which they will no longer be supported:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;en-us;lifecycle

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycleconsumer.asp

[FanJ]

quoted from that last link:
[hr]

Desktop operating systems entering Extended phase (effective date):

Windows 95 (December 31, 2000)
Windows 98 / 98 SE (June 30, 2002)
Windows NT 4.xx (June 30, 2002)
Windows 2000 (March 31, 2003)
Windows Me (December 31, 2003)


Desktop operating systems entering Non-Supported phase (effective date):

MS DOS x.xx (December 31, 2001)
Windows 3.xx (December 31, 2001)
Windows 95 (November 30, 2001) ***
Windows NT 3.5x (December 31, 2001)
Windows 98/98 SE (June 30, 2003)*
Windows NT 4.xx (June 30, 2003)

[FanJ]

Mainstream Phase: Three years after general availability.

Early in this phase, licenses should be generally available from computer manufacturers and retail stores.**
Standard support offerings (e.g. incident support (per warranty), online support information, etc.) are available.

Extended Phase: Between three and four years after general availability.

Licenses may no longer be available to consumers.**
In addition to online support information, paid incident support will be available.

Non-Supported Phase: After four years of general availability.

Licenses may no longer be available to consumers.**
Only online support information will be available.
Microsoft may terminate this phase after providing 12 months advanced notice.

** Actual Windows desktop operating system license availability in a particular channel may be different based upon channel partners' policies.

[Prince_Serendip]

:( I was thinking of changing my OS to Win2k (from Win98se). Oh well, back to the drawing board! It expires before Win98se. It's beginning to look like I might have to listen to the voice of the penguins. I recall seeing somewhere, perhaps a posting on this board, something about alternative OS's --not made by M$? XP doesn't look all that inviting. Hmmmm.

Later edit: Your right! I misread it. Phew! That was close. Thank you. (Yeah, I'm getting glasses soon.) ;D

[UNICRON]

you might want to reread that Prince. W2K does not expire before win98se.

I for one have switched two machines (including my main one) over to Linux Mandrake 8.2. I like it so far.

I have one small windows98 machine left. I don't need support for it so it can expire all it likes. 3rd party software will keep it safer that a M$ patch anyway.

[Detox]

Yeah I gotta admit that MS no longer supporting my 2 machines with 98SE won't affect me... I havent downloaded anything from 'em. Maybe I would download and save the EI patches up to 5.5 from 5.0 but I think it forces the update without letting you save update files anyway. Hell, if I have to, I can use 5.0 if something messes up. I can't tell any difference these past few months with 5.5 anyway.

[Checkout]

This is all standard industry practice.

[TonyKlein]

I read that the Win98 lifecycle may have been extended.

From http://www.aumha.org/elist.htm

"I have been informed that Microsoft’s formal warranty support cycle for Win98 has just been extended one more year. I suppose you can call this an E-List News Exclusive. (Or you can call it a rumor, I suppose, since most people I’ve contacted inside of Microsoft haven’t heard about it yet. But the tip came from inside Customer Support.)"

[controler]

I also don't like to use the default Windows XP User Interface so I
went to control panel, Clicked the startmenu-Taskbar icon, Clicked the startmenu tab and chose Classic start menu to give it back that Windows ME feel ;)

controler