Microsoft: Many customers running unsupported operating systems
As the Conficker worm continues to burrow into more Windows systems, it’s become apparent that not only are many users failing to keep up with their patching, but many others are running older versions of Windows for which patches aren’t available.
“During Conficker we realized that a lot of customers are on unsupported OSs,” blogged Roger Halbheer, Chief Security Advisor of Microsoft EMEA (Europe Middle East and Africa).
“Unsupported,” in this case, means unsupported by Microsoft. Microsoft continues to update and patch operating systems and other products for free for roughly five years from the time a product is first released. Then the product enters the “extended support” via which volume licensees can purchase an “extended hotfix agreement” in order to continue to get full support from Microsoft. Security fixes and patches are an exception that don’t require the purchase of an extended support agreement; Microsoft continues to provide those during the extended phase for all users for free.
