After returning from holiday, between all the Build Windows (Windows 8 ) news, a quick heads-up for those with lagging upgrade schemes or any other valid reason to be still running Exchange 2010 RTM. On October 11th, 2011, support for Exchange 2010 RTM will end.

This should be of no surprise when you practice proper lifecycle management or track Microsoft’s KB bulletins as this information was published on the lifecycle page as well as knowledge base article KB2615653.

For those doing fresh installs and still wondering if this affects their process of installing SP1 versions starting by using the RTM files; since Exchange 2007, Service Packs for Exchange contain all binaries enabling you to perform a fresh installation as well as an upgrade using the same set of files.

You can download Exchange 2010 Service Pack 1 here.