Microsoft has walked back plans to end support for its Office productivity apps on Windows 10 before the end of the year.
Back in January, Microsoft revealed it was ending support for its legacy operating system on October 14, and the Microsoft 365 apps more commonly known as Office would be going too.
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At the time Microsoft said: “To use Microsoft 365 Applications on your device, you will need to upgrade to Windows 11.
It meant that unless Windows 11 was plonked on older PCs, they’d be running unsupported versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook and more. Those apps wouldn’t have stopped working altogether, but there’d be no guarantee of security plugs.
Thankfully, Microsoft has now seen sense to the tune of three more years of additional support for those staple Windows apps. Not one, not two, but three additional years of support.
“To help maintain security while you transition to Windows 11, Microsoft will continue providing security updates for Microsoft 365 Apps on Windows 10 for three years after Windows 10 reaches end of support,” the software giant says in a support post (spied by The Verge).
“These updates will be delivered through the standard update channels, ending on October 10, 2028.”
Excellent. Great news for those on the best budget laptops.
Microsoft is still trying to get users to upgrade to Windows 11 and continues to offer the software for free to users on Windows 10. While it’s a no brainer for most consumers, it’s not an easy transition for some business organisations that have different logistical needs and may not be able to update all of their machines to those capable of running Windows 11.
Opinion
Microsoft is clearly keen to get Windows 10 off the books. It hasn’t been the company’s primary four almost four years, but the transition hasn’t been as rapid. According to StatCounter close to half of UK Windows users are still rocking Windows 10 as of March 2025.
