10 October 2017 was an important date for Microsoft Office. It marks the end of support and updates for all ‘flavors’ of Office 2007.
From now on there’ll be no updates or patches. Not even security patches to fix vulnerabilities available to hackers.
It applies to the entire Office 2007 range. Bundles like Basic, Professional etc. Also, individual programs like Word 2007, Project 2007, SharePoint Designer 2007 etc.
Office 2007 was an important milestone for Office. It was the first version of Office to include the ribbon interface and the new document formats (.docx .xlsx etc.).
What to do?
Office 2007 will continue to work. As time goes by, there’s an increased risk of infection. A new security bug in Office that becomes known and exploited but isn’t fixed by Microsoft.
Microsoft wants Office 2007 customers to migrate to Office 2016 and preferably the Office 365 annual payment option. That’s certainly the easier course, either the one-time payment/perpetual licence version or Office 365 with regular feature updates.
If you don’t need or are wary of the latest Office, it’s possible to buy Office 2013 or even Office 2010 from reputable second-hand sources. You’ll need the install CD/DVD plus the all important Product Key.
Office 2010 ends support in three years (13 October 2020).
You’ll get more ‘support life’ out of Office 2013 which has around six years before security patches end (11 April 2023).
