Microsoft to retire Office XP, Vista SP1 next week

Microsoft will retire 2001's Office XP and the first service pack for Windows Vista next week, according to the company's published schedule.

Both Office XP and Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) will exit all support July 12, this month's Patch Tuesday. That date will be the last time Microsoft issues security updates for the aging suite and Vista SP1.

Microsoft supports its business products for 10 years, the first five in what it calls "mainstream support," and the second five in "extended support." The biggest difference between the two phases is that in the latter, non-security fixes are provided only to companies that have paid for special support contracts.

Microsoft generally patches security vulnerabilities in its products throughout the entire 10-year stretch.

Although Office XP's support expires next week, Vista users can continue to receive security updates by upgrading to SP2, the service pack Microsoft launched in May 2009.

:story: Full story: Computerworld