Microsoft has announced that the final day it will offer security support for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on Windows 10 will be Oct. 14, 2025. Businesses that rely on Microsoft 365 apps and use the outdated operating system must upgrade to Windows 11.
“After that date, if you’re running Microsoft 365 on a Windows 10 device, the applications will continue to function as before,” Microsoft said in the announcement. “However, we strongly recommend upgrading to Windows 11 to avoid performance and reliability issues over time.”
This applies to the subscription version of Office, Microsoft 365, and non-subscription versions of Office 2021, Office 2019, and Office 2016. Microsoft says that when a user upgrades to Windows 11, all Microsoft 365 features and security updates will resume as before and they can run an Office update to ensure they have the latest version.
SEE: What’s Inside Microsoft’s Major Windows 11 Update?
This October cutoff will also mark the end of Windows 10 support, joining Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 in the operating system graveyard. However, Windows 10 is still the most used Microsoft OS, with 62.7% of the market share as of Dec. 2024. Windows 11 has just 34.12% of the market share.
Microsoft calls 2025 ‘the year of the Windows 11 PC refresh’
Microsoft has dubbed 2025 “the year of the Windows 11 PC refresh.” Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s Executive VP, said in a blog post: “We believe that one of the most important pieces of technology people will look to refresh in 2025 isn’t the refrigerator, the television, or their mobile phone. It will be their Windows 10 PC, and they will move forward with Windows 11.”
The post is seemingly attempting to solicit users to upgrade by associating Windows 11 with its Copilot+ PCs and other AI innovations. Microsoft has also tried pestering users into submission, by displaying full-screen pop-ups suggesting users upgrade their device and transfer their files.
SEE: Microsoft Copilot Cheat Sheet: Price, Versions & Benefits
Windows 11 has proven a controversial upgrade due to the “non-negotiable” requirement that devices looking to do so must have the Trusted Platform Module 2.0, which was announced in 2021. Microsoft claims that TPM 2.0 “raise(s) the security baseline” by enabling features like BitLocker, Windows Hello, and Virtualisation-Based Security, which are necessary for protection against modern threats such as ransomware.
PCs manufactured after mid-2016 typically support TPM 2.0, though it may need enabling in BIOS, but only CPUs released from 2018 onwards will support Windows 11. Older PCs without TPM 2.0 cannot run the OS officially; users must upgrade hardware or, at their own risk, bypass requirements using one of the many workarounds discovered by the Windows community.
Microsoft offering extended security updates
For those who are set on continuing to use Office apps on Windows 10, there is one more way to do this securely. Microsoft is offering Extended Security Updates to consumers for the first time, meaning that for $30, anyone can receive one extra year of “Critical and Important security updates”. Enrollment for this will be opened “closer to the end of support in 2025.”
Businesses will be able to pay for up to three years of ESU. It will cost $61 for the first year but the price will double for each consecutive year. Enrollment for this is open now and the first update will deploy in November.
Those who purchased Windows 10 Long-Term Servicing Branch or Long Term Servicing Channel will also continue to receive security updates after Oct. 14.
