Microsoft Ending Support for Windows 98

[morriswindgate]

Attention
In accordance with the Microsoft Product Support Lifecycle, no-charge support for Windows 98 ended on July 1, 2003. Paid-only support will continue to be available from Microsoft at $35 per incident until January 16, 2004. Support will also be available from some third party providers.

Microsoft will also continue to offer a variety of self-help resources on the Product Support Services Web site until at least January 16, 2006, two years after phone support for Windows 98 ends on January 16, 2004. These resources include the Microsoft Knowledge Base and Newsgroups.



ASSOCIATED PRESS

REDMOND, Wash. (AP) - Microsoft Corp. will stop offering support services next month for computer users whose machines are still running Windows 98, though the company said it might still release security patches if threats appear serious enough.

About 20 percent of all Windows-based computers still run Windows 95 or 98, according to International Data Corp., a technology market research firm. Support for Windows 95 stopped Dec. 31, 2001.

People whose machines run Windows 98 will not be able to call Microsoft for help after Jan. 16. Online assistance will still be available.

Analysts said the support phase-out should not cause major problems, in part because businesses - the largest segment of the PC market - generally upgrade their computers every three to five years.

"I don't think anybody's freaking out about it," said Jupiter Research analyst Joe Wilcox. "One, the operating systems are very old and I don't believe a large number of businesses are using (them) in critical areas. Two ... there's an ample warning that these products are end-of-life."

Wilcox argued that consumers have better reasons to upgrade than the approaching end of support.

"Those older operating systems, as long as they're kicking around, they're potential security problems for every company that uses them," Wilcox said. "They weren't built with encryption of data in mind. A lot of information is transmitted, passwords and things, as clear text. If you're looking for a good way to allow a virus on a network or allow it to be hacked, keep running these older operating systems."

[andyms18a]

this is the best place to get support for win98 http://forum.pcmech.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=8

[GaryRouth]

I love the security aspect of the ms expert! It's the WinNT/2k/XP DCOM subsystem that is the swiss cheese invite to worms.

Older systems run best on the OS system of their day. Newer systems run much better on XP. Security can be taken care of for any OS, so long as some common sense and precautions are present.

Love to see some of those PII's with 128mb system memory currently running Win98 try to run XP with acceptable system response . . .

Support can still be had long, long after the official support ends. You just can't call them and let them charge you anymore . . . shucks . . . the Knowledge Base help stays online, and most files and fixes are still available for download.

The funny thing is: you can still go to your local computer store and pay $90 for a copy of Windows 98 2nd Edition, the unsupported product. Seems like that ought to drop, eh? (don't hold your breath)
. . . Gary

[p.s. ....Ok, just re-read the analyst's quote...hm: Show Of Hands: how many XP users are actually encrypting their data with the encryption option? (certainly none running XP Home Ed = it's not offered --- it's only in the XP Pro version) . . .

[catfishjoe_1]

So when they stop support does that mean that there will be no more windows updates for that product(win98) and if so how will you get all the updates if and when you need to reformat?
cat

[GaryRouth]

You'll still be able to grab the Updates that have already been published. They just won't be as aggressive in issuing new updates. In their press release, they say they will evaluate each future update (those after the "sunset" of Win98 support) "on a case-by-case basis". My feeling is that they will continue to offer patches, especially since WinMe shares so much of the code base & is still supported. I think Microsoft is ending support perhaps a little sooner than average because of their settlement of the Java lawsuit with Sun. Microsoft can't sell Win98 after a certain point in 2004 because it has a Microsoft flavor of Java, that according to the settlement cannot be offered past that date. This shouldn't keep them from keeping their customers happy (and try to keep the customers from suing them, in case another vulnerablility puts the customers at risk), so I imagine a fair amount of updates might be in Win98's future, still.

Time will tell.
. . . Gary