Microsoft will stop mainstream support for Office 2010/16 starting today: users should upgrade quickly

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It is reported that Microsoft's termination of mainstream support for a software is the first stage of the product life cycle, which generally lasts 5 years or until 2 years after the release of the subsequent product. Software that has ended mainstream support will no longer receive free support, paid support, security upgrade support, and optional non-security patches.

Also reaching the end of support is Office 2010, and Microsoft is urging customers who are still using the platform to upgrade to a newer suite, such as Office 2019.

For the above users, to get security, functional, and non-security improvements after October 13, users must deploy Office 2019 or Microsoft 365.

Microsoft also confirmed that a new standalone version of Office, which would include Word, PowerPoint, Excel and other tools, could be released next year.

According to Microsoft, the new version of Office will be available for Windows and Mac, and will still be a perpetual license. At the Ignite conference three years ago, Microsoft announced that users would be able to purchase Office 2019 as a perpetual license.