Several major Microsoft products will reach their end of support during 2020, with Office 2010, Visual Studio 2010, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 (including 2008R2), and multiple Windows 10 versions including 1803 and 1903 being some of the most important ones.

For products that have reached their end of support, Microsoft stops providing bug fixes for issues that are discovered, security fixes for newly found vulnerabilities, or technical support.

Customers who still use end of service software are advised by Redmond to upgrade as soon as possible to the latest on-premise or cloud version to keep their systems secure and bug-free.

The Extended Security Update program

However, as Microsoft says on its support website, "For customers requiring more time to move to the latest product, the Extended Security Update (ESU) program is available for certain legacy products as a last resort option.

The ESU program provides security updates only for up to 3 years, after the End of Support date. Contact your account manager, partner or device manufacturer for more information."

A list of some of the most prominent Microsoft software products reaching end of support this year and links to more details for each of them is available in the table below:

The products marked with asterisks are eligible for Microsoft's Extended Security Update Program.

End of support Modern Policy and Fixed Policy products

"Modern Lifecycle Policy covers products and services that are serviced and supported continuously" according to Redmond's support site with the company providing a minimum of 12 months' notification before ending support if no replacement product or service is available.

These are the most important products covered by a Modern Lifecycle Policy that will be retired in 2020.

Products (Modern Policy) Retirement Azure Container Service

Windows Analytics January 31, 2020 Windows 10, version 1709 (Enterprise, Education, IoT Enterprise)

Windows 10, version 1809 (Home, Pro, Pro for Workstation, IoT Core)

Windows Server version 1809 (Datacenter Core, Standard Core) April 14, 2020 Windows 10, version 1803 (Enterprise, Education, IoT Enterprise) November 10, 2020 Windows 10, version 1903 (Enterprise, Home, Pro, Pro for Workstations, IoT Enterprise)

Windows Server, version 1903 (Datacenter, Standard, IoT Enterprise) December 8, 2020

According to Microsoft, a very long list of products governed by the company's Fixed Policy will also reach their end of support in 2020.

"Fixed Lifecycle Policy applies to many products currently available through retail purchase or volume licensing," says Microsoft.

This policy provides customers with at least 10 years of support (a minimum of 5 years of Mainstream Support followed by 5 years of Extended Support), with some exceptions.

Below, you can find a list of some of the most significant Microsoft products with a Fixed Policy reaching end of life this year.

Product (Fixed Policy) End of Support Hyper-V Server 2008

Hyper-V Server 2008 R2

Windows 7

Windows Server 2008 R2

Windows Server 2008 January 14, 2020 Internet Explorer 10 January 31, 2020 Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010

Visual Studio 2010 (all editions) July 14, 2020 System Center Service Manager 2010 September 8, 2020 Access 2010

Excel 2010

Excel Home and Student 2010

Office 2010 (all editions)

Project Server 2010

SharePoint Foundation 2010

SharePoint Server 2010

SharePoint Server 2010 Service Pack 2

System Center Data Protection Manager 2010

Word 2010

Office Home & Business 2016 for Mac

Office Home & Student 2016 for Mac

Office Standard 2016 for Mac October 13, 2020

Products moving to Extended Support

Besides the long list of products being retired, there are also many of them that will move to Extended Support from Mainstream Support in 2020.

"Extended Support lasts for a minimum of 5 years and includes security updates at no cost, and paid non-security updates and support," says Microsoft.

"Additionally, Microsoft will not accept requests for design changes or new features during the Extended Support phase."

A list of some of the more important software products moving into Extended Support is available in the table embedded below.

Product End of Mainstream Support Cloud Platform System April 14, 2020 Exchange Server 2010 (all editions)

Exchange Server 2016 (Enterprise, Standard)

Office Home and Business 2016

Office Home and Student 2016

Office Professional 2016

Office Professional Plus 2016

Office Standard 2016

Skype for Business 2016

Visio Professional 2016

Visio Standard 2016

Visual Studio 2015 (all editions)

Visual Studio 2015 Update 3

Windows 10 Enterprise 2015 LTSB

Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2015 LTSB

Windows Defender Antivirus for Windows 10

Windows Defender Exploit Guard October 13, 2020

Microsoft provides a full list of all the products that will be reaching the end of support or will be retiring in 2020, as well as a list of all products and their lifecycle policy timelines in the Lifecycle Product Database.

A complete list of end of support deadlines and related migration information for all Microsoft products is available on the Search product lifecycle page.