Soon many productivity apps will no longer be supported by Microsoft because they are reaching the end of their lifecycle. Find out which popular programs are affected and what your options are.
The end is near for a group of old but still commonly used business apps. On October 13, 2020, many Microsoft productivity apps will reach the end of their lifecycle, including:
- Access 2010
- Excel 2010
- Excel 2016 for Mac
- Excel Mobile 2010
- Exchange Server 2010 (all editions)
- Office 2010 suites (all editions)
- Office 2016 for Mac suites (all editions)
- OneNote 2010
- Outlook 2010
- Outlook 2016 for Mac
- PowerPoint 2010
- PowerPoint 2016 for Mac
- Publisher 2010
- Word 2010
- Word 2016 for Mac
Microsoft has already indicated that it will not be extending the October 13 deadline. Nor will it be offering Extended Security Updates like it is doing with Windows 7.
While you can still use the aforementioned business apps after October 13, 2020, it might be dangerous to do so. When an app reaches the end of its lifecycle, it is no longer supported. This means that Microsoft won’t be providing security updates to patch newly discovered vulnerabilities or defend against new types of attacks. In addition, the company will no longer provide technical support or update support content. In fact, most of the online support content will be retired.
Because there won’t be any security updates or technical support, it is a good idea to upgrade any apps that are reaching the end of their lifecycle. Alternatively, you could switch to apps offered by different vendors.
If you decide to stay with Microsoft and upgrade your apps, you have two options:
- You can subscribe to the Microsoft 365 productivity cloud, which provides Office apps, security services, storage services, and more. If you never heard of Microsoft 365, you are not alone. In late April 2020, Microsoft changed the name of “Office 365” to “Microsoft 365” for all the Office 365 home and business plans. These plans have basically stayed the same, including their pricing. Some of the Office 365 enterprise plans kept their “Office 365” designation because there were already existing Microsoft 365 enterprise plans. For example, the Office 365 E3 plan kept its name because a Microsoft 365 E3 plan already exists.
- You can buy the Office 2019 suite. With this option, you make a one-time purchase of Office 2019, which is on-premises software. Alternatively, you can make a one-time purchase of standalone Office 2019 apps such as Outlook 2019 or Word 2019.
We can help you decide which option is best for your company if it is still using any of the productivity apps being retired on October 13.
Files flickr photo by Christiaan Colen shared under a Creative Commons (BY-SA) license
