Support for Windows 2000 SP2
Kathy
New Custom Support Contract Available Providing Support for Windows 2000 SP2
Dear Customer:
In October, 2002, Microsoft announced a comprehensive support lifecycle
policy for our software products. This policy covers business and consumer
software, and provides consistent and predictable guidelines for product
support availability (mainstream, extended and online self-help support), as
well as Service Pack and hotfix support (including critical security
updates).
For reference and more detailed info, please see:
http://www.microsoft.com/lifecycle
For specific information on Windows product lifecycle policies, please see:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle/default.mspx
A key component of this support lifecycle announcement was an extension of
the hotfix support policy for Service Packs. Prior to this announcement,
most products from Microsoft provided hotfix support for only the most
current version of a given product's Service Pack. Some products such as
Windows 2000 offered a transition period where we would release hotfixes for
the immediately preceeding SP (a.k.a "N-1") for 2 to 3 months after
introduction of a new Service Pack.
Under the new Service Pack policy, support is available for the current and
immediately preceding service pack (rather than only the most current
service pack). The immediately preceding service pack is supported for up to
12 months after the current service pack releases.
When Microsoft released Windows 2000 SP4 in June we discontinued support for
Windows 2000 SP2 in accordance with our updated Product Support Lifecycle
policy. However, we have since talked with customers who have asked us to
investigate providing some form of support on this unsupported service pack
as they migrate to a currently supported version. Based upon these
conversations Microsoft is creating an exception process whereby all
customers will receive full support for security patch MS03-026 on Windows
2000 SP2 systems. Moving forward, Microsoft has also established a
fee-based support offering that will enable customers to receive future
critical security patch support on Windows 2000 SP2 through December 31,
2003. This is a one-time extension of the existing Service Pack policy for
Windows 2000 SP2 only, and will not be offered to extend Service Pack
support in the future.
Microsoft also strongly recommends the immediate and rapid evaluation and
deployment of new Service Pack levels upon their commercial release (SP3 or
SP4 for Windows 2000) to ensure the most secure and robust environment
possible. Microsoft does not recommend nor endorse the skipping of Service
Packs. In addition we suggest you plan now for the termination of security
and hotfix support for Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 prior to the end of June
2004.
For more information on the terms and conditions of this Custom Support
Contract for Windows 2000 SP2 or to discuss other aspects of the Microsoft
Support Policy please contact your account manager or contact Microsoft
sales.
Kathy Prince
Microsoft Support Lifecycle
Program Manager
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties and confers no rights