As of April 15, 2009, mainstream support is no longer available for Office 2003.

Extended support is now available for Office 2003, and will continue through April 8, 2014. For more information, see Office 2003 Product support lifecycle information (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=152791).

Extended support is still available for Office 2000, and will continue through July 14, 2009. Office 2000 updates published on or before July 14, 2009, will remain on the Microsoft Download Center. This date marks the end of the 10-year support period in the Microsoft support life cycle. For more information, see Office 2000 Product support lifecycle information (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=152790).

After July 14, 2009, Office 2000 updates will no longer be available from Microsoft Web sites. However, you can still receive support from Microsoft through a custom support agreement (CSA). For more information, contact your account team or local Microsoft representative.

Beginning August 1, 2009, Microsoft will discontinue support for the Office Update Web site. To continue getting the latest updates for Microsoft Office products, go to Microsoft Update (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=15270).

In addition, support for the Office Update Inventory Tool Version 2.2 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=152789) also discontinues on August 1, 2009. The Office Update Inventory Tool v2.2 will remain available on the Microsoft Download Center, but will not be updated on or after August 1, 2009. We recommend that you transition to using Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) to deploy Office updates within your corporate network, if you use the Office Update Inventory Tool. For more information about WSUS, see Microsoft Windows Server Update Services 3.0 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=82773).

The Microsoft Support Lifecycle policy took effect in October 2002, and applies to most products currently available through retail purchase or volume licensing and most future release products. Through the policy, Microsoft offers a minimum of:

• 10 years of support (5 years of mainstream support and 5 years of extended support) at the supported service pack level for Business and Developer products.

• 5 years of mainstream support at the supported service pack level for Consumer, Hardware, and Multimedia products.

• 3 years of mainstream support for products that are annually released (for example, Microsoft Money, Microsoft Encarta, Microsoft Picture It!, and Microsoft Streets & Trips).

Mainstream support phase

Extended support phase

The extended support phase follows mainstream support for Business and Developer products. At the supported service pack level, extended support includes:

• Paid support.

• Security update support at no additional cost.

• Non-security related hotfix support requires a separate Extended Hotfix Support Agreement to be purchased (per-fix fees also apply).

Important:
Both the mainstream support and extended support phases require the product's supported service pack be installed to continue to receive support (including security updates). For more information, see "Service Pack Support" in Microsoft Support Lifecycle (c11fc4a2-5d3e-415d-bf9f-60d0d18f1742). For more information, see Microsoft Support Lifecycle (c11fc4a2-5d3e-415d-bf9f-60d0d18f1742).