Will classic ASP pages run on versions of Windows past Windows 7?

Question

We have a legacy system that uses both classic ASP and VB6/COM+, and are planning a migration to the .NET stack.

We are attempting to develop a migration schedule, and one key driving point will be "when will our old stuff stop working?".

For VB6/COM+, Microsoft has stated that it has no plans to include the VB6 runtime in versions of Windows after Windows 7 (yes I am aware that this is open to interpretation).

I have yet to find a similar statement for classic ASP. I have seen people reference the Microsoft end-of-life schedule for Windows 2008 Server R2 (which is sometime in 2018) and infer that:

(a) since classic ASP runs on Win2008R2 and
(b) Win2008R2 is good until 2018 then
(c) classic ASP is good until 2018.

Not sure I buy that, especially because we have contractual obligations to support new versions of Windows xx months after they come out, so staying on Win2008R2 as a solution is not an option.

Can anyone point me to something from Microsoft concerning end-of-life for classic ASP?

Answer 1

It will stay with us for some more years to come, according to this blog post:

Here's some interesting news from ScottGu and team. I was wondering what the lifecycle for ASP "Classic" was. I looked on the Microsoft Lifecycle page and didn't see it. I was fortunate enough to talk to ScottGu as well as Rich Ersek and was told:

Classic ASP is actually very much alive. It will ship again with Windows Vista and Windows Longhorn Server – so will be supported at least 10 years from that ship date. - ScottGu

and

Asp.DLL is part of VISTA so the runtime will continue to be supported based on the Vista support lifecycle.

All classic ASP development tools (i.e., Visual Interdev) are now in their extended support period and we will not be updating tools for classic ASP.

To get the best tooling/platform option ASP.NET is the way to go. - Rich Ersek

Windows Vista final release date as far as I've found is January 30, 2007 so it means classic ASP will be supported in new versions at least until 2017 and probably much further.

Scott Guthrie is Microsoft's Corporate Vice President, Server & Tools Business so he knows what he's talking about.

Edit: Finally (January 30^th 2012) - official confirmation that classic ASP is going to stay with us for long years, including Windows 8:

The next major version of Internet Information Services (IIS) will be shipped as part of the Windows 8 operating system. The use of ASP pages will be supported on Windows 8 for a minimum of 10 years from the Windows 8 release date.

Answer 2

Here is a technet article on how to install on Windows Server 2012, so it should be supported for a long time... http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831387

Answer 3

if you scroll to the properties section of that article it says it applies to Microsoft Active Server Pages 4.0. it doesn't say classic asp, or asp 1.0, or asp 1.1. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2669020