hm, ok
So they stopped coming up with security patches and hot-fixes for Win 2000, in 2005 ?
Not that I know of. The support lifetime you quote has nothing to do with patches, but rather with their support.
Until 2005, a company with a contract with MS could tell them about an issue they are having, and if MS finds that issue has to do with windows, they refund the 99$ fee and issue a hotfix.
after 2005, if the company tries the same thing, they will need to pay more for a hotfix and will not see any sort of rebate for the hotfix. Additionally, such "hotfixes" will not be included in a service pack on account of it already being out of mainstream support, so further companies who have similar issues will need to pay to get support and will then be redirected to the same hotfix given to the other company. Although sometimes these hotfixes appear on the KB if they are more general in nature.
the average consumer is NOT supposed to contact Microsoft- if they own a dell, they call dell. if they own a Acer, they call Acer. manufacturers are liable for their products.
