Reminder of changes coming to Office support in October

[Office_365_Team]

Office 2016 for Mac and Office 2010 will reach their end of support on October 13, 2020. After this date, Microsoft will no longer provide technical support, bug fixes, or security updates for Office 2016 for Mac and Office 2010. You will still be able to use these versions of Office, but over time, organizations may face an increase in security risks and compliance issues.

Also, as previously announced, after October 13, 2020, customers will need to have Office 365 ProPlus [1], Office 2019 or Office 2016 to connect to Office 365 services. Microsoft will not take any active measures to block legacy versions of the Office client from connecting to Office 365 services, but these older clients may encounter performance and/or reliability issues over time. For related Office client support timelines, see the Office support dates matrix.

We recognize customers are at different points in their journey to the cloud, and we will continue to listen to and support our customers in their transition to Office 365 ProPlus, the subscription version of Office that receives regular security and feature updates.

We have several resources to help you in your transition. Start planning for your migration to Office 365 ProPlus with the Office 365 ProPlus Deployment Center. It provides the latest and most up-to-date deployment and servicing guidance, including guidance on how to use the Readiness Toolkit for Office to help you identify compatibility issues with Office add-ins and Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macros. And if you find you need additional assistance, Microsoft FastTrack has experts and the App Assure program to work with you in rolling out Office 365 ProPlus across your organization.

For more information and resources about Office end of support, visit the Office End of Support Tech Community. For the most up to date information on Office and Windows end of support timelines, please see this Lifecycle announcement.

--

[1] Office 365 ProPlus is being renamed to Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise. To learn more about this name change, read this blog post.

[Reza_Ameri-Archived]

Due to Coronavirus, deploying new application to remote worker is not easy task and required additional planning and testing. Therefore, I am wondering is it possible to extend end of support date for these products to next year?

[NetDef]

Can anyone on the Office team confirm if the recently announced OAuth postponement indicates some limited (perhaps unofficial) support for customers with Outlook 2010 past October 2020?

We had planned a large upgrade project to move a client off 2010 and into 365 ProPlus during August/September.  Due to the pandemic lock-downs, this project may not be feasible until the dust settles down.

It would be horrible for customers to suddenly lose access to their email while remote working . . .

[Dan W]

I doubt Microsoft will extend support for Office 2010 but we can always hope.  I use that version as well as Libre Office.  I have not decided yet whether I will go to Office 365 or a later perpetual version of Office software.

[Miriam Daniel]

@Reza_Ameri-Archived  - We recognize this is an evolving situation, and will continue to listen to our customers and keep this announcement up to date. Microsoft has resources available to help both remote workers and administrators. For more information on these resources please see: https://news.microsoft.com/covid-19-response/

Thank you for your feedback!

[Miriam Daniel]

@NetDef - The decision to delay blocking of BasicAuth connectivity was based on the breadth of impact across all Office clients regardless of the given clients support lifecycle stage. The end of support date for Office 2010, Office 2016 for Mac, and Office 2013 connectivity to the Office 365 services remains the same. However, as noted in the announcement above Microsoft will not take active measures to block legacy versions of the Office client from connecting to Office 365 services, but these older clients may encounter performance and/or reliability issues over time.

Thank you for your feedback

[Dan W]

Thank you so much Miriam Daniel from Microsoft for your most recent response.  The way I see it as a member of the IT Professional Community is that sadly there is not a compelling reason to continue support for Office 2010 and Office 2016 for Mac in regards to Office 365 since Office 365 is a SaaS (Software as a Service) and thus is continually evolving.  In addition, in regards to Office 2010 and Office 2016 for Mac, the lifecycle of the product ends in October 2020 and if consumers/businesses/gov'ts continue to use Office 2010 after October 2020 the business and individuals will be exposed to an increased risk of malware that could hit their network(s).  The Life Cycle of Office 2010 and Office 2016 for Mac ends on October 13, 2020 and there is an increased risk to your business if you continue to use Office 2010 and Office 2016 for Mac on your network(s) after this date if it is connected to the Internet or if someone manages to get removable media into the business or gov't environment that could compromise the network(s) by taking advantage of patched software within Office on end of life software.  However, Office 2013 support does not end until April 11, 2023 so perhaps Microsoft Corp. could throw us a bone so to say for this particular product and fully support it with Office 365 until the actual end of support date of April 11, 2023.  Thanks in advance Microsoft for seeing eye to eye with us in these matters.  There are also alternative Office Packages such as Libre Office that consumers and others could take advantage of but of course there is no official Microsoft support for these products.

The case was different with Windows 7 because so many governments and companies had technology that was specifically tied to Windows 7 and used Windows 7 Professional as well as Windows 7 Enterprise and that is why we are eternally grateful to Microsoft for having the ESU program tied to Windows 7 as well as for professional and safety and security reasons that I will not divulge over open channels.  Yes, there is some communication that in hindsight we regret but we "Get Laser Focused" on the mission at all costs so to coin a phrase and we feel we must succeed no matter what the personal cost may end up being and we succeeded thanks to Microsoft's Help and all our concerns were greatly met.  I hope this can continue the glorious friendship between us as we continue down the road in the future.  Web Sites to prove my points as follows:

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/End-of-support-for-Office-2010-3A3E45DE-51AC-4944-B2BA-C2E4...

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/end-of-support-for-office-2016-for-mac-e944a907-bbc8-4be5-9...

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/search/?p1=16674

https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download/

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4527878/faq-about-extended-security-updates-for-windows-7

[Reza_Ameri-Archived]

@Miriam Daniel Thank you for the follow up, those who have been working with me knows that I will be fully support the latest technology. For example, I am currently working on deployment of new Microsoft Edge on multiple devices , make sure we have the latest version of Microsoft Office and so on. But reality is there are companies who are not following this and it might take some times to keep them update. Now, with COVID-19 deployment is a bit challenging, since they are not at office.

Actually, there is opportunity which because people are working at home, there are many empty PCs and Laptop and we have chance to upgrade them all. But for those who are at home challenge still remains especially because their PC is the main source for remote working.

[Davidf58]

We are still using Office 2010 but will be upgrading soon.  Meanwhile, users are starting to get pop-up notification for Office 2010 end of support.  Since the users do not have any control over the upgrade, is there a way to suppress these end-of-support notifications?

[Dan W]

Which Office Software do you plan on updating to Davidf58?  A later perpetual license of Microsoft Office Software or Microsoft 365 which is a SaaS (Software as a Service) support option.  The advantages of Microsoft 365 is that it is updated frequently and has the latest features and can be accessed all over.  If reoccurring subscription costs are a concern, Microsoft still gives us the option to buy a perpetual license of Office.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/selectindex

[MFHyland]

Thank you for your feedback Miriam. I work for a small city here in central Virginia and we were planning to upgrade about 1400 computers from Office 2010 to Office 2019 before Oct. this year but because of the virus situation we are working with very limited staffing and some employees have been furloughed. We still intend to implement the upgrade but estimate that it will occur around December/January.  I hope simpleauth will not break between now and then.

I wish Microsoft would provide a better installation method for O2019 desktop app.  The Office Deployment tool and XML file requirements is a significant departure from the traditional MSI installer and has created some major challenges to the way we have always installed software.

MikeH - Lynchburg, Va

[Miriam Daniel]

Hi @MFHyland, I understand that there is a transition going from MSI to C2R deployments. You may have already found resources to assist however, in case you have not here are some pointers from our deployment team: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployoffice/office2019/deploy#create-the-configurationxml (2019 deployment guidance) and/or go to http://config.office.com. It's easy to specify your config there in a visual way (similar to the old OCT) and then export the config file for use with the ODT. No XML knowledge or editing required. I hope this helps!

[Dan W]

Hi all.  My husband has traditionally used Microsoft products since Windows 3.1.x  He enjoyed the old traditional MSI installer as well.  Since, he assists US-CERT.GOV with Will Dormann and works on Microsoft Security And Safety Issues he has been very concerned with the removal of a safety protocol with the introduction of the new format of Windows with Windows 8.x and Windows 10.  He can be reached via your traditional *.yahoo.com email address provided with Microsoft.  He has been in contact with Microsoft since the era of Bill Gates of course having been a computer user since 1984 with an IBM PCJR.  He is a great fan and friend of Rob Eisenberg of Microsoft as well having worked with him on discussions in the past.  There is an NDA regarding this so I will leave it at that fact.

https://github.com/EisenbergEffect

https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/817544 -- I cannot get into the details here because of NDA -- but Matt Miller knows how serious this is of course

https://www.dagtech.com/news-resources/it-white-papers/microsoft-office-365-cloud-vs-traditional-sof...

(The Last Web-Link is just an example and no affiliation and/or endorsement to use those services)

Our mutual problem is that numerous 3 letter agencies (NDA here also of course) are very concerned with the new model Microsoft is using versus the old traditional model.  We of specified 3 letter agencies would like the option to continue using the Windows 7 Model as a SaaS (Software As A Service) Model where we can continue to purchase yearly upgrades on the operating system to support our current economic models as well as our election protection model.  What can we do to tell my other constituents about how to protect and safeguard all our systems after end of extended support model in January 2023 for Enterprise Users such as we all are of course.  We continue to appreciate Microsoft and your tireless efforts to help make the USA and her allies safe and secure in the chaotic world of today with the coronavirus affecting all of us.

[MFHyland]

Thanks for your response Miriam, I am familiar with the resources in your links and have actually been using the Office customization online resource but still think it is a hassle compared to the MSI method.  We use PDQDeploy in our imaging process and there have been some resources they have posted on the web since earlier this year in case anyone is reading this, is a PDQDeploy customer, and have not see these yet.

https://www.pdq.com/blog/deploying-office-365-the-right-way/ and their PDQ Live! web channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY-EiOQ3_ms

Mike - Lynchburg, Va.

[JimSatterfield]

I'm certain everyone appreciates your responses, Miriam, but can you tell us anything about the reasoning behind ending 365 support for Office 2013 3 years before its EOL?

[Miriam Daniel]

Hi @JimSatterfield 

The announcement in April 2017 gives the best summary of why the decision was made to end support for non-mainstream supported Office client versions connecting to Microsoft 365 services (primarily security related). Though to be clear, Office 2013 client itself is still supported until 2023, it’s the connectivity to Microsoft 365 services that will no longer be supported.  

Lastly, Microsoft will not take any active measures to block older Office clients, such as Office 2013 and Office 2010, from connecting to Office 365 services. However, legacy clients attempting to connect to a modern, always up- to- date cloud service may experience performance and reliability issues. Customers will face an increased security risk, and may find themselves out of compliance depending on specific regional or industry requirements. Microsoft Help may not be able to resolve issues that arise due to unsupported service connections.

Thank you for reaching out with your question!

Miriam

[Chanda Wong]

Hi @Dan W - Thank you for reaching out. While Extended Security Updates are available for Windows 7 devices through January 2023, we recommended customers take action to enroll in Microsoft 365 or upgrade directly to the latest version of Windows 10. If you experience any application compatibility issues after you update to Windows 10, you can utilize the Desktop App Assure for assistance.  There's a secondary path to enroll in Windows Virtual Desktop in Azure. After you enroll, you can get Extended Security Updates, included, to protect on-premises servers and desktops through January 2023. 

Thanks,

Chanda

[EhsanR]

After the update I am not able to run an excel based macro but my colleagues who have not the update rolled out to them, are not having any issues running the macro.

Is there a known setting that got changed?

how can I get the macro to work?

[Chanda Wong]

Hi @EhsanR - We need a bit more details. Can you help me understand what update you're referring to? What was the before and the after state? 

Thanks,

Chanda

[Dan W]

• Windows 7 is Mission Critical - We will be deploying Windows 11 machines at the right time - thus why our teams were able to work with Microsoft to have Windows 7 ESU Program which has been a Critical Mission Success - We encourage Microsoft and Alphabet Google to continue Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome to January 2023 from January 2022 end of support due to Mission Criticle Operations on how Microsoft Edge greatly outperforms Internet Explorer which is used only for legacy purposes in tightly controlled settings.  The 3 letter federal USA agencies thank you all at Microsoft as well as Apple of course for your continued support in maintaining a safe and secure computing environment.