microsoft-stopped-windows-7-mainstream-supporting

Microsoft Stopped Windows 7 Mainstream Supporting

2015-01-14

Yesterday, 2015 January 13, Microsoft stopped the mainstream supporting for Windows 7.

The following Windows 7 products ended mainstream supporting at the same day:

Windows 7 Enterprise        
Windows 7 Enterprise N        
Windows 7 Home Basic        
Windows 7 Home Premium    
Windows 7 Home Premium N    
Windows 7 Professional    
Windows 7 Professional for Embedded Systems        
Windows 7 Professional N    
Windows 7 Service Pack 1    
Windows 7 Starter    
Windows 7 Starter N    
Windows 7 Ultimate    
Windows 7 Ultimate for Embedded Systems    
Windows 7 Ultimate N    
Windows Automated Installation Kit for Windows 7

Here is Windows lifecycle fact sheet which posted in April 2014 from Microsoft:

So what does mainstream support mean ?

Let’s get explanation from Microsoft:

What is the difference between mainstream support and extended support?

**
**
Mainstream support—Microsoft will offer mainstream support for a minimum of 5 years from the date of a product's general availability, or for 2 years after the successor product is released, whichever is longer. For example, if you buy a new version of Windows and five years later another version is released, you will still have two years of support left for the previous version.

Extended support—Microsoft will offer extended support for either a minimum of 5 years from the date of a product's general availability, or for 2 years after the second successor product (two versions later) is released, whichever is longer.

(more details info about Windows support lifecycle policy see here. )

BTW: Windows 8 mainstream support will end in 2018 Jan 09, we have 3 years to go.