I've been around QuickBooks (Desktop) a long time, and I have seen Intuit 'sunset' versions of QuickBooks for years, but I don't ever recall seeing Intuit issue a 'release update' whose purpose is connected with 'service discontinuation.' This past Friday I was contacted by someone experiencing a problem with their QuickBooks 2016, when they sent me a copy of their QBWin.log I noticed that they were on 'Release R17' (I must admit that I wasn't even aware there was a Release R17, I thought the last update was R16.) Sure enough, when I looked up the release notes there was R17 listed, with a single description:
"Prepared QuickBooks 2016 for 'service discontinuation'."
That's all it says, doesn't provide any details, nor any description of what that means, what it does, what it implies, or anything else. And like most updates, it doesn't list when it was released or even when the release notes were published.
As I said, I have never seen a release in the past to 'prepare any version of QuickBooks for 'service discontinuation'. That's almost scary, like when the recording use to tell Mr. Phelps on Mission Impossible (the one on TV, not those big-dollar movies) that the 'tape would self-destruct' a few seconds after it ended.
Of course, I immediately began thinking the worst, this client is now having problems using their QuickBooks 2016, and R17 has been installed, 'service discontinuation' is in force, it's about to self-destruct... I hope there is a backup in place. As it turns out, nothing that sinister was going on, in fact apparently all went back to working the next time the client rebooted the computer...but it does make you wonder what the purpose of a 'service discontinuation' release really is???
I really don't know if 'you do' or 'you don't' want to install Release R17 for QuickBooks 2016 since I don't know 'what the heck' preparing the product for 'service discontinuation' really means. Personally, I don't intend to update my product my primary copy of the software, but... "that's just me!"