Just days just before launching Windows Vista, Microsoft has made the decision to extend the assistance lifecycle for your consumer variations of its presently shipping Windows XP system. Microsoft is now offering 5 decades of "mainstream" support,
Office Professional 2007, plus five years of "extended support" for XP Media Center and XP Home Edition. Previously, Microsoft provided no extended support for the consumer variations of its XP operating system. Consequently, customer versions of XP are now covered under mainstream assistance through April 2009, and under extended support through April 2014. As a result of the change,
Windows 7 Ultimate, announced on January 24,
Office Home And Business 2010, Microsoft now provides the same number of a long time of support for business and customer variations of Windows XP. The main difference between mainstream and extended assistance is the way Microsoft treats non-security-focused hotfixes. Under mainstream support, Microsoft provides these kinds of hotfixes for free. Under extended,
Office 2010 Activation Key, customers are required to pay for non-security hotfixes and must sign an "extended hotfix agreement,
Microsoft Office 2010 Professional, purchased within 90 days of mainstream assistance ending."