Microsoft will drop free support for handful of aging products next week, including consumer versions of Windows XP and Office 2003.
After next week, consumer XP and Office 2003 will be put into an "extended support" phase, which means customers will need to pay for Microsoft assistance on a per-incident, per hour, or alternative basis.
Security updates will still be provided for free for Office 2003 and XP Home and Professional until August 4, 2014. After that, the software is retired and users are on their own.
Customers can still get non-security critical fixes if they've enrolled in Microsoft's Extended Hotfix Support program. However, they must purchase the Hotfix agreement within 90 days of mainstream support ending - so it's rather late for that now.
