Under a brand new support policy, Microsoft will begin offering limited break/fix troubleshooting to consumers operating unsupported company packs.Microsoft officials introduced the new support pack (SP) assistance policy on April thirteen by way of the company;s Support Lifecycle weblog.By way of the new policy — which Microsoft instituted based on customer and partner feedback over the past few years, according to the post — buyers will be able to obtain assistance in the following manner:1. Break/fix support incidents will be provided via Microsoft Customer Services and Assistance; and thru Microsoft’s managed assistance offerings (such as Premier Support).2. There will be no option to engage Microsoft’s product development resources,
Genuine Office 2007, and technical workarounds may be restricted or not available.3. If the support incident requires escalation to development for further guidance, requires a hotfix, or requires a security update, consumers will be asked to upgrade to a supported service pack.Below the previous service-pack support policy, once a support pack reached the end of assistance, buyers couldn;t get any troubleshooting help from Microsoft unless they upgraded to a supported company pack. They weren;t allowed to get telephone support,
Windows 7 Enterprise Key, security updates or non-security hot fixes,
Microsoft Office 2007 Pro, period. This end of assistance date comes after a period of free support, followed by a period of paid assistance (the time periods of which vary for different Microsoft products).The ultimate goal,
Office 2007 Enterprise Key, even with the new policy, is to get users to move to a supported services pack. As organization officials noted in the blog post, “Staying on a supported services pack is the only way to ensure that you get continued access to security updates and the ability to escalate your assistance issues within Microsoft.”Meanwhile,
Microsoft Office Pro Plus 2007, a quick reminder for those who are still operating the RTM version of Windows Vista that assistance from Microsoft ends today (April thirteen). The end-of-support deadline does not apply to those running Vista with Company Pack (SP) 1 or SP2 installed.