If you’re unable or unwilling to upgrade to Windows 11 and you’re running Microsoft Office (now known as Microsoft 365, of course), there’s some good news: Support for Word, Excel, and the other Office apps is being extended for an extra three years beyond the end-of-life date for Windows 10 itself.
The end-of-life date support for Windows 10—after which no further software updates or technical support will be offered by Microsoft—has been set for Tuesday, October 14, 2025. Support for Microsoft 365 apps will now go all the way up to Tuesday, October 10, 2028.
That’s as per an updated support document published by Microsoft and spotted by The Verge. Before now, there had been some confusion about whether Microsoft would cut off support on the same date for both Windows 10 and Microsoft 365 programs running on it, so we now have some clarity.
The shift is to “help maintain security while you transition to Windows 11,” Microsoft says, so it obviously still wants you to start using Windows 11 as soon as possible. The extension applies to both the version of Office that can be purchased for a one-off fee, and the Microsoft 365 subscription version based on monthly or yearly payments.
There are also some important caveats here: Even if the Office apps are being kept up to date until 2028, you really don’t want to be running them on an unsupported operating system. If you’re sticking with Windows 10 past October this year, you’ll want to pay for Extended Security Updates ($30 a year for home users) to make sure you’re protected against hackers and viruses.
Even though you won’t be getting any new features with the Extended Security Updates, your PC will at least be patched up against whatever nasty security threats emerge, so you can carry on using Microsoft 365 without worry. The extended support for Word, Excel, and the other apps won’t cost you any extra on top of what you’ve already paid for them.
Ideally, Microsoft wants to get everyone running Windows 11, and the advice if your system doesn’t meet the required specs is to go out and buy a new PC with Windows on it. That’s more of a challenge for businesses who’ve got dozens or hundreds of workstations to upgrade, of course.
Microsoft has put splash screens in Windows 10 encouraging users to upgrade to the latest operating system, as well as telling anyone who’ll listen about the benefits of the Windows 11 experience. Windows 11 was launched back in October 2021, but it’s thought that more than 60% of PCs are still using Windows 10.
There’s another caveat when it comes to the support you can expect from Microsoft beyond October: If you ask for technical help from Microsoft with Office apps on Windows 10, and the issue doesn’t occur on Windows 11, you’ll be advised to upgrade the operating system. “If the customer is unable to move to Windows 11, support will provide troubleshooting assistance only; technical workarounds might be limited or unavailable,” Microsoft says.
