Frequently Asked Questions About Exchange Server Life-Cycle Policies
Exchange Server support life-cycle policies provide advance notification of planned changes in product availability and support. This page helps you answer common questions about the policies.
Select a question from the list to show the answer. You can also view the answers to all of the questions by selecting the check box.
Exchange Server 5.5 and Earlier
| Q. | Is it true that Exchange Server 5.5 extended support will not be charged for the first year? |
| A. | Yes. For the details, see the Support Life-Cycle Policy Changes for Exchange Server 5.5 page. |
| Q. | When are the policy end dates for Exchange Server 5.5 and Exchange Server 5.0? |
| A. | For Exchange Server 5.5 and Exchange Server 5.0, mainstream support ended on December 31, 2003. Extended support ends on December 31, 2005. |
| Q. | How long will security updates for Exchange Server 5.5 be available? |
| A. | Security updates will be available until the end of the Exchange Server 5.5 extended support period, December 31, 2005. |
| Q. | What resources are available to help me upgrade and migrate from Exchange Server 5.5? |
| A. | Numerous resources and tools are listed on the Benefits of Upgrading to Exchange Server 2003 page. |
Exchange 2000 Server and Later
| Q. | Exchange 2000 Server Service Pack 3 was released in July 2002. With this policy change, can I request hotfixes for Exchange 2000 Server Service Pack 1 and Service Pack 2? |
| A. | No. You can submit hotfix requests for Exchange 2000 Server Service Pack 3 (SP3) and Exchange 2000 Enterprise Server SP3. Hotfix requests for earlier Exchange 2000 Server or Exchange 2000 Enterprise Server service packs are not accepted. You should download and install Service Pack 3 (SP3) on all servers running Exchange 2000 Server or Exchange 2000 Enterprise Server. SP3 for Exchange 2000 Server and Exchange 2000 Enterprise Server contains the newest fixes as well as the fixes from previously released service packs. |
| Q. | What about products such as Mobile Information Server 2002? Should I deploy this product or just deploy Exchange Server 2003? |
| A. | Each user's requirements and infrastructure plans should be reviewed along with the system requirements for Microsoft Mobile Information Server 2002 and the system requirements for Exchange Server 2003. Make sure that users are planning their Active Directory directory service deployments for Exchange 2000 Server or that the planning is in progress. |
For More Information
For Microsoft Office and other Microsoft product support information, see the Product Support Life Cycle page on the Microsoft Help and Support site. To get more answers about your Microsoft Support Life-Cycle questions, see:
| • | Exchange Server Support Life-Cycle Policies |
| • | Support Life-Cycle Policy Changes for Exchange Server 5.5 |
| • | Microsoft Support Life-Cycle Support Policy FAQ page |
