Microsoft Extends XP Support for Consumers

Today, Microsoft announced that it will double the support life cycle for the consumer versions of Windows XP to 10 years to match the support life cycle for XP Professional, the business version of XP. This change affects both XP Home Edition and XP Media Center Edition (XP MCE), Microsoft said.

"With the addition of Extended Support, the support life cycle for Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Media Center Edition will include a total of five years of Mainstream Support (until April 2009) and five years of Extended Support, matching the support policy provided for Windows XP Professional," a Microsoft statement about the change reads.

XP Home and XP MCE were previously limited to five years of Mainstream Support, which is the typical support life cycle for Microsoft's consumer products. Microsoft's business-oriented products, however, typically include an additional five years of what Microsoft calls Extended Support. During the Extended Support phase, Microsoft supports products with security hotfixes, but doesn't support design change requests or warranty claims or provide non-security-related software updates.

Microsoft said it changed the support life cycle for XP Home and XP MCE because of customer requests.