Microsoft announces several products are to reach the end of free mainstream support in 6 months, including all versions of Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Exchange Server 2010 and Dynamics C5 2010.
Free mainstream support for the above mentioned products ends on 13 January 2015, but the company promises to provide security patches until 2020.
Mainstream support for Windows 8.x ends on 9 January 2018, a hint that a next version of Windows might be coming sometime next year. Windows Phone 7.8 mainstream support ends even sooner-- on 9 September 2014.
Microsoft usually provides mainstream support (as in free updated features and/or extended support such as security updates) for a 5-year period, before providing extended support in the shape of free security fixes for 5 more years.
Some analysts speculate Microsoft might support Windows 7 for longer, especially as customers still prefer to upgrade from XP to 7, rather than going for 8. History suggests this might be the case, XP support continued for nearly 13 years.
