Support for these Microsoft enterprise products ends in 2023

Microsoft has a policy that limits application support to ten years for most products without a defined lifecycle. As a result, there is a long list of products that have been phased out or will be phased out in 2023.

The full list is documented as part of Microsoft’s Lifecycle site, which shows what is going out of support or in extended support through 2027, along with tools for searching for specific products. It’s important to stay up to date with this, especially if you’re supporting the software estate of a business.

Microsoft products losing support in 2023

2013 was a big year for Microsoft. It launched a slew of products, many of which were offered under perpetual licenses without any subscription or cloud requirements. As a result, these products remain key components of many corporate images and have been deployed across generations of desktops and laptops. Those images are tested and debugged, working in different versions of Windows, and changes require a lot of testing.

Operating System

At one end of the scale, that list includes operating systems such as Windows 8.1 and Windows RT, as well as Windows 7 if you’ve paid for Extended Security Updates. Support for these ended in January, with other operating system releases such as Windows Embedded 8 and Windows Server 2012 going out of support in July and October.

Look: Switch to Windows 11.

Server

Along with desktop applications, major parts of your infrastructure will lose support this year, with Exchange Server 2013 and SharePoint Server 2013 not getting updates after April 2013. You will not receive bug fixes, security fixes, or technical support. A small set of changes that could have a big impact as governments around the world consider the role of daylight saving time is that you’ll stop getting time zone updates.

as Jeff Woolsey, Principal Program Manager of Windows Server, noted on twitter“This is not a drill. You should stay away from these products. Please do not risk running into an unsupported scenario.

Microsoft Support Tools

However, the list includes more than operating systems, servers, and desktop applications; Other tools also appear to support your users.

In 2023, that list will include version 8.0 of the Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DART), as well as tools such as Microsoft Office Audit and Control Management Server 2013. If you don’t make sure you’re on a supported version of the tools. In this way, not only will you be unable to provide the full level of support to your users, but you’ll also be unable to ensure that you’re properly audited. may be out of compliance with its license.

subscription services

There are also some problems with current subscription services; For example, if you’re using Windows 8.1 with any version of Microsoft 365, yours will no longer be supported. This is more an alignment with OS support than an issue with the cloud service itself, but it’s something to watch out for as versions of Windows 10 fall out of support.

Look: Get Microsoft Office Pro Plus and become an Excel expert with this deal from TechRepublic Academy.

Subscription services like Microsoft 365 aren’t as seamless as you’d expect, even with applications like Excel. While these additional data types have proven to be useful, they are often dependent on third-party providers. If you are using Wolfram data types in your Excel application, these will stop working in June 2023. They will be linked to Excel’s Basic Accounting Money template at the same time, which will no longer bring in new transactions.

end of life for office 2013

The biggest one, of course, is Office 2013. While support for use of its cloud services ended in 2020, it remains a popular tool, thanks to the option to use it with a perpetual license. If you are still using it, you should move users to a more recent version to reduce risks to your business as it no longer receives security updates.

Look: Get Microsoft Office Pro for Windows 2021 with this deal from TechRepublic Academy.

At the same time it is worth thinking about the future of any Office 2019 that, as it is still within the full support lifecycle, is likely to lose access to any cloud services later in 2023 as it goes out of mainstream support. goes. While the Services may continue to function, they will not be guaranteed, and Microsoft will make no commitment to correct any connectivity problems.

Dealing with end-of-support

You have several options for how to deal with these end-of-support products. One is to upgrade to the latest on-premises version, possibly switch to a subscription release with SharePoint, or move to Microsoft 365 using migration tools to move data from on-premises to the cloud.

While this last option will move your support burden to Microsoft, it is not suitable for all organizations, particularly where there are regulations that require on-premises content. It’s worth looking at the instructions that Microsoft provides for how to decommission the server and any associated best practices.

If you’re moving from Exchange 2013 to Microsoft 365, your best option is to do a full cutover migration, as there’s no way to batch mailboxes. Alternatively, you can set up a hybrid environment and gradually switch users over to cloud-hosted mail.

Look: Explore our list of top data migration tools that can help you with the task.

If you’re moving to on-premises Exchange 2019, you’ll need to follow Microsoft’s guidelines because the process requires updating your Active Directory environment before moving mailboxes to the new server. In-place upgrade is not recommended.

Some organizations may be using multiple versions of Exchange, where there are dependencies on specific third-party applications. Here you will need to test new versions of your software on new server releases such as Exchange 2016 or 2019.

Once you’ve successfully updated your code, test it with a small group of users to make sure they’re able to use the new tools and services before moving all remaining mailboxes and decommissioning the old servers. Migrate to the new infrastructure.

As part of the migration, use the log tool to ensure that clients are connecting to the new server before completing the migration. Microsoft has made an internal support tool available to any Exchange administrator through its Techcommunity blog platform. Log Parser Studio is capable of working with large Exchange log files, and its query tools can quickly track down clients that need to be reconfigured or updated to work with the new Exchange Server.

While Microsoft’s product life cycle is relatively predictable, it’s important to make sure you’re on top of not only when support is running out, but exactly when. Knowing whether or not something is supported for another few months can help you complete a migration or upgrade or ensure you’re ready with the right new licenses to keep your business in compliance.