Microsoft is done answering your questions about Windows 7, 8, and 8.1—at least, on its official support forums.

The company announced in a post that Microsoft employees will no longer answer forum questions about older operating systems come July 2018. Microsoft Security Essentials, Internet Explorer 10, and Office 2010/2013 will also no longer see official forum support.

To be clear: users can still post questions, and other users can answer those questions. The only change is that no one employed by Microsoft will provide support.

A few forums have been locked entirely: Microsoft Band and the Zune sections. Users can’t even ask questions in the hopes of getting answer from fellow users.

Official forum support is really useful. It’s nice if you’re the one getting a question answered, sure, but it’s also a useful tool for people who search for help later to find an official statement. I can’t count the number of times I’ve found the answer to a Windows question this way. So I’m sure Windows 7 and 8/8.1 users are disappointed by this. Windows 7 is still getting security updates, after all.

Thanks to Mark Wycislik-Wilson at Beta News for pointing this story out to us.