There is one constant in life and this is that time flies quickly around you. It is the same thing with software – there are always new releases of popular software products that render older versions obsolete. This holds true for many Microsoft products too – can you believe that Windows 7 is just 6 months away from end of support?
Unfortunately this is the harsh truth and Microsoft has already warned users of end of support deadlines for major company products that include Windows 7 (Enterprise, Home Basic, Home Premium, Ultimate and Starter), Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Storage Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Office 2010 SP1, SharePoint 2010 SP1 and more software programs. For most of them not all hope is lost – they will enter the so called extended support period where users of these programs will get free security updates but all other fixes and improvements will become paid. Windows Server 2003 is not as lucky as on July 14, 2015 this server OS will get the boot and all support for it will be terminated. More specifically Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Storage Server 2008 will enter extended support on January 13, 2015, while Office 2010 SP1 and SharePoint 2010 SP1 will suffer the same fate on October 14, 2014.
Along with the upcoming deadlines Microsoft will launch various campaigns aimed at trying to convince users to migrate to newer versions of these programs, for a fee of course. You can still use these software products but you will not get full support. Still, if you feel secure enough and the software listed above does the job, you can postpone the impending software upgrade for some later time.
Source: Microsoft