The original release of Windows Vista (often known as RTM or Service Pack 0) has end of support as of yesterday (13th of April). What this means to us technicians is that in order to get Windows Vista support from Microsoft, the Vista install must be at least Service Pack 1.

In conjunction with this milestone, Microsoft also made a tweak to their service pack support policy. Previously under the Service Pack Support Policy when a service pack reaches its end of support, customers were no longer eligible to receive troubleshooting help from Microsoft Customer Service and Support, including assisted telephone support, security updates, or non-security hotfixes. Customers requiring assistance from Microsoft had to upgrade to a supported service pack to be eligible for any support.

However, after much feedback, Microsoft updated the Service Pack Support policy to “provide customers with limited troubleshooting on unsupported service pack versions”.

What does limited troubleshooting mean? According to the Microsoft Support Lifecycle Blog it means:

The new Service Pack Support policy enables customers to obtain support as follows:

  • Break/fix support incidents will be provided through Microsoft Customer Service and Support; and through Microsoft’s managed support offerings (such as Premier Support).
  • There will be no option to engage Microsoft’s product development resources, and technical workarounds may be limited or not available.
  • If the support incident requires escalation to development for further guidance, requires a hotfix, or requires a security update, customers will be asked to upgrade to a supported service pack.

The new policy will help to:

  • Improve customer satisfaction by providing access to support representatives who can respond to questions about support options for unsupported service packs.
  • Ensure that customers have a consistent experience when contacting Microsoft for support on an unsupported service pack.
  • Provide additional support options and flexibility for customers who have not completed migration to a supported service pack.

Microsoft also noted that only supported versions of Vista will get updates such as bug fixes and security packs.