Support For Windows 98 and ME Ending With Flaw Unpatched

Support for Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition and Windows Millennium Edition will end on July 11 with a serious flaw unpatched.

In an update to the FAQ in MS06-015 Microsoft explained the decision:

Specifically, after extensive investigation, we’ve found that it’s not feasible to make the extensive changes necessary to Windows Explorer on these older versions of Windows to eliminate the vulnerability.

This is because during the development of Windows 2000, we made significant enhancements to the underlying architecture of Windows Explorer. The Windows Explorer architecture on these older versions of Windows is much less robust than the more recent Windows architectures.

Due to these fundamental differences, these changes would require reengineering a significant amount of a critical core component of the operating system. After such a reengineering effort, there would be no assurance that applications designed to run on these platforms would continue to operate on the updated system.

While these operating systems will continue to function, it is recommended that customers upgrade their computers to Windows XP SP2 as soon as possible. For those that cannot upgrade, for whatever reason, it is recommended that they “protect those systems by placing them behind a perimeter firewall which filters traffic on TCP Port 139 which will block attacks attempting to exploit this vulnerability. This is discussed in the “Workarounds” section of the vulnerability.”

Windows 98, 98SE and ME: Information about Support Lifecycle and MS06-015