If you’re using Microsoft Office 2010, you have less than a year before support ends for this product.
Support will end on October 13, 2020. What does that mean to you as a user? The program won’t suddenly stop working, but there will be issues.
There will be no more technical support offered by Microsoft for Office 2010. There will also be no more fixes to glitches or known bugs.
Most importantly, there will be no more security patches. Why is this important? Microsoft Office is one of the favorite targets of malware attacks. What are your options?
- Subscribe to Office 365. Office 365 Personal, good for one installation on one PC or Mac is $70 a year. Office 365 Home, good for installation on up to 6 devices is $100 yearly.
- Buy a one-time purchase of Office Home & Business, good for installation on one PC or Mac for one user for $249.
- Switch to the free version of Office available online at Outlook.com.
- Switch to another office suite such as the free OpenOffice and LibreOffice programs. They will open and edit Microsoft documents and allow you to create new documents, presentations, and spreadsheets. They are free to download and install.
If you have a business with more users, you’ll want to look at Microsoft’s Office Pro Plus plans that start at $12 per user per month.
The 2020 end date for support is in line with Microsoft’s policy of offering 10 years of support for Office Product. For example, if you purchase Office 2019, it will be supported to 2029.
If you’re a subscriber to Office 365, the product will be gradually updated as new features become available. Remember, support for Windows 7 is also ending soon, in January of 2020.