cPanel support for Microsoft Frontpage Extensions is being phased out!

What do I think about Microsoft Frontpage? Performance can be horrible, there are many possible security flaws, to many people suckered into premium priced windows hosting to go with it, to many limitations in functionality and dynamic output and many more complaints.... it is just plain and simply old school.

However, old school was school not long ago. Only in the last 3-5 years have most colleges moved from teaching Frontpage to flash, flash and more flash which is typically what we see from most folks just out of school these days and it is completely wrong, wrong, wrong! So while the colleges are way behind in the times, they are making progress, it's just a slow process and the direction is still wrong.

None the less, we have many many Frontpage webmasters out there, typically they are 1990's webmasters and the friend of the family who maintains a friend of a friends small business website! FrontPage HAS served many people very well for very many years and is still a productive tool for a few different purposes at the novice or experienced levels.

So hurray Frontpage but here is a small caution to the wind:

Frontpage EXTENSIONS support may be phased out of cPanel someday soon or not so soon but someday!

Here is a notice from a midPhase Inc. newsletter:

"FrontPage Backs Out

We feel it's very important to note that we've been notified by the cPanel development team of their plans for the upcoming releases of cPanel and it's support of Microsoft Frontpage – namely there will be none. Frontpage Extensions are being phased out of cPanel, no pun intended. Once cPanel has been upgraded at a to-be-announced date then only way to utilize FrontPage Extensions will be in its native Windows Hosting platform."

Which spurred concerns such as:

"I have three reseller account with midPhase and over 80 web sites all that are FrontPage sites - does this mean that I will have to switch to another hosting company?"

See: http://forum3.midphasetalk.com/showthread.php?p=27155

In the end, midPhase came out with a reassuring statement "..............FrontPage Extensions and publishing from within FrontPage are two completely separate issues. Our customers can and will always be able to publish from within FrontPage using the FTP option in the publishing menu. That's an option cPanel cannot and will not remove from their product....................................... Even if cPanel removes Extensions support sooner rather than later, count on midPhase to find a way around it as we are dedicated to providing the best webhosting experience ever."

See: http://forum3.midphasetalk.com/showthread.php?t=6253

Windows Hosting solutions will always support Microsoft Frontpage extensions and publishing so no worries there, but for anyone that prefers a cPanel hosting solution or currently uses one, you should keep all of this is mind and perhaps take a look at midPhase as a webhost to have confidence in.

For webmasters that want to ensure they can still use Frontpage without a problem on cPanel hosting solutions: You can turn support on or off for features in FrontPage that require FrontPage Server Extensions. If you turn support off, features that require FrontPage Server Extensions will not be available as menu options thus not used or required. Check your settings or help files to confirm the correct options for your version of Frontpage. You can still edit your site locally then upload using Frontpage's FTP upload capability which will still work just fine even without cPanel hosting solutions supporting Frontpage extensions.

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