Just days before launching Windows Vista,
Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft has decided to extend the assistance lifecycle for the consumer versions of its presently shipping Windows XP method. Microsoft is now supplying five years of "mainstream" assistance, plus 5 many years of "extended support" for XP Media Center and XP Home Edition. Previously,
Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise, Microsoft provided no extended assistance for the consumer versions of its XP operating method. Consequently,
Windows 7 Pro, customer variations of XP are now covered under mainstream support through April 2009, and under extended support through April 2014. As a result of the change, announced on January 24, Microsoft now provides the same number of decades of support for business and consumer versions 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,
Microsoft Office 2007, customers are required to pay for non-security hotfixes and must sign an "extended hotfix agreement,
Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus, purchased within 90 days of mainstream assistance ending."