MGR IT

In keeping with Microsoft’s Support Lifecycle Policy, some versions of Windows will soon go “out of support”.  This means that Microsoft will no longer provide free security updates and problem resolution for those products, leaving anyone still using them potentially exposed.

The products that will go out of support on 13th July are Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP with Service Pack 2.

In the case of Windows 2000, this product is now ten years old and the only option for those wanting to have access to continued support from Microsoft is to upgrade any Windows 2000 systems, to at least Windows Server 2003 in the case of servers or at least Windows XP with Service Pack 3 for PCs.

With respect to Windows XP, it is important to note that Windows XP itself will be supported for a few more years; it is specifically Windows XP with Service Pack 2 that will go out of support this month.  To maintain support from Microsoft Windows XP users need only install the free Service Pack 3 for Windows XP.

In addition, Windows Vista with no service packs (known as the Release to Manufacture, or RTM, version) went out of support in April.  If you are running Windows Vista, you need to make sure you have installed at least Service Pack 1 (and preferably Service Pack 2) to maintain support.

Various versions of Microsoft Windows have support end dates coming up that may impact on you if you use these versions.

Support for Windows Vista with no service packs will end on 13th April, 2010 and support for Windows XP Service Pack 2 will end on 13th July, 2010.  This means that to receive security updates, hotfixes and assisted support from Microsoft, you will need to upgrade these versions to a supported service pack.  The current service pack for Windows Vista is SP2 and the current service pack for Windows XP is SP3.

Also coming to the end of its supported life is Windows 2000, in all of its versions.  In this case, the Windows 200 product will end its Extended Support phase on 13th July, 2010.  This is pretty much the end of the support line for Windows 2000; Microsoft will no longer offer free or paid support for the product after this date and will provide no further security updates or hotfixes.  The only support remaining after this date will be self-help support such as online Knowledge Base articles and FAQs, which are guaranteed to remain available for at least twelve months after the end of Extended Support.  If you are running Windows 2000 on servers or PCs, then I strongly recommend that you upgrade to a more recent version of Windows.

You can find more information on the end of support for Windows XP SP2 and Windows Vista with no service packs here.  You can find more information on the end of support for Windows 2000 and some information about Windows Server 2003 support changes here.

While many people will first experience Windows 7 through buying a new computer with the operating system pre-installed, it will also make sense for many to upgrade existing computers to the new version, for some of the reasons I have touched on in a previous post.  For users of Windows Vista, there are potentially two ways of going about the upgrade.

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Windows 7 has been officially out for almost a month now and the reviews have been almost uniformly glowing.  Certainly, my own experience, starting from the beta several months ago, through the release candidate and now the final release version, has been very positive.

The benefits of Windows 7 have been discussed widely, though some of them are fairly intangible and not terribly compelling.  What I want to look at here are some cold, hard, real world reasons why businesses would upgrade from Windows XP or Vista to Windows 7.

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Windows 7 has now reached the “Release to Manufacture” (RTM) stage and will be publicly available from October 22.  Should you upgrade?  Or are you better off sticking with Windows XP or Vista?

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One feature of Windows 7 that has been generating a lot of interest is Windows XP Mode. This feature, allows a Windows 7 Professional (or higher) user to run applications that are not compatible with Windows Vista. Application compatibility was one of the major factors in negative reviews of Vista, so this feature will certainly be very welcome.

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Ubuntu 9.04 has been released in the last couple of weeks and I have been playing around with it to see how it compares to previous releases.

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Mainstream support from Microsoft for Windows XP (both Home and Professional editions) ends on the 14th of April, in accordance with Microsoft’s Support Lifecycle.

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For years now it has been common practice for businesses to avoid implementing new Microsoft products until Service Pack 1 (SP1) has been released for the product.  It has certainly been a course I have recommended over the years, as well as waiting at least a month before deploying service packs so that news of any problems with the service pack can filter through before you have to discover them yourself.

However, with the upcoming release of Windows 7, IT research company Gartner have recommended that businesses need not wait for SP1 before deploying the new operating system.

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Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) will reach end-of-life on April 18, 2009.  This is 18 months after its release date, which is the support timeframe for non-LTS (Long Term Support) editions of Ubuntu.  (LTS editions are released every two years and are supported for three years on the desktop and for five years on servers.)

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