If you're running Windows Vista or Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 it may be time to think about upgrading as today marks the end of Microsoft's mainstream support for the products. As with all Microsoft products it will move into the Extended support phase which lasts for some time, in Vista and Exchange Server 2007's case until April 2017.
The main difference between the phases is Microsoft will not accept requests for warranty support, design changes, or new features during the Extended Support phase, and Extended Support is not available for Consumer, Hardware, or Multimedia products.
Further information on the Mainstream and Extended support phases, and product lifecycles in general, can be found here.
We thought we'd take this opportunity to share some of the other support lifecycle dates for Microsoft products:
Windows Desktop OS's
Desktop operating system
End of mainstream support
End of extended support
Windows XP
April 14, 2009
April 8, 2014
Windows Vista
April 10, 2012
April 11, 2017
Windows 7
January 12, 2015
January 14, 2020
Windows Server OS's
Server operating system
End of mainstream support
End of extended support
Windows Server 2003
July 13, 2010
July 14, 2015
Windows Server 2008
July 09, 2013
July 10, 2018
Windows Server 2008 R2
July 09, 2013
July 10, 2018
Microsoft Exchange Server
Exchange Server Version
End of mainstream support
End of extended support
Exchange Server 2003
April 14, 2009
April 08, 2014
Exchange Server 2007
April 10 , 2012
April 11, 2017
Exchange Server 2010
January 13, 2015
January 14, 2020
Microsoft SQL Server
SQL Server Version
End of mainstream support
End of extended support
SQL Server 2005
April 12, 2011
April 12, 2016
SQL Server 2008
January 14 , 2014
January 08, 2019
SQL Server 2008 R2
January 14 , 2014
January 08, 2019
SQL Server 2012
July 11 , 2017
July 11, 2022
As you can see from the above Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 are the next products to move to Extended support in July of next year. Good job Windows Server 8 is around the corner!