Microsoft pulling out of Support Forums

[LSW]

For those of us still using Windows 7 or Office 2013, you should know that End-of-Life for these products is 2020 (Jan. 2020 for Win 7). That means after that date there will no longer be updates and patches released for them.

However this month is of course the end of the Fiscal Year, so to re-allocate assets, Windows will be pulling out of support roles in things like forums next month. Help is still available as long as the programs/OS are still live, you will just have to get help from other users in places like forums.

Microsoft walks away from Windows 7, Office 2013 support forums

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3281044/microsoft-windows/microsoft-walks-away-from-windows-7-office-2013-support-forums.html

Quote

"Effective July 2018, the Microsoft Community forums listed below will shift support scope and Microsoft staff will no longer provide technical support there," the identical messages stated. "There will be no proactive reviews, monitoring, answering or answer marking of questions."

Along with Windows 7, the other products covered by the mandate include Windows 8.1 and Windows 8.1 RT, Office 2010 and Office 2013, the Security Essentials antivirus program and the early Surface and Surface Pro 2-in-1 devices.

In some of the messages, Microsoft asserted that the stoppage impacts "products that reached end of support," even though software such as Windows 7 and 8.1 have years left before they're officially retired.

The discussion forums, which are under umbrella site dubbed "Microsoft Community" located at the URL answers.microsoft.com, primarily consist of peer-to-peer questions and questions. But Microsoft employees do post in the threads, providing clarifications, solutions to problems, and in some cases, mea culpas for screw-ups.