Microsoft 365 users still on Windows 10 will be out of luck when Windows 10 is retired in October
What, you thought your subscription software would just keep working when you're already paying for it?

If you're still running Windows 10 and you subscribe to Microsoft 365, your Microsoft 365 apps will cease to function on Oct. 14, 2025, according to an official Microsoft blog post. This will happen when Microsoft ends Windows 10 support, which seems slated to cause unprecedented levels of completely unnecessary e-waste, because apparently (at least according to Microsoft!) every PC made before TPM 2.0 modules belongs in the trash.
Now, is it fair to expect Microsoft to support Windows 10 forever? No. However, dropping support for Windows 11 simply means that the company will no longer continue to deliver security updates and bug fixes — not that your PC will become a brick after Oct. 14. But Microsoft 365 is partially web-based, so Microsoft can cut off support — and will, according to the blog post, which states that "To use Microsoft 365 Applications on your device, you will need to upgrade to Windows 11."
You can download the Office apps to your PC, but you need to connect to the internet once every 31 days or the apps go into reduced functionality mode, so, presumably, you'll have 31 days from Oct. 14. This won't, of course, apply to the fully web-based browser versions of the apps.
But dropping support for a suite of applications that currently work perfectly fine on Windows 10 for paying subscribers when the support for the OS ends is certainly not a very consumer-friendly move. Microsoft's blog post pushes users toward a free Windows 11 upgrade, but the fact of the matter is that if you're currently running Windows 10 and you want to be running Windows 11 — there's probably a reason. If you haven't upgraded to Windows 11, you either don't want to or you don't have hardware with TPM 2.0 support. You can, of course, bypass Windows 11's TPM 2.0 requirement, but it's not the easy upgrade Microsoft suggest it is.
It's good that third parties like 0Patch are willing to keep supporting the security of Windows 10 users, but that clearly won't be enough to keep the full functionality of Windows 10 present for its current users. Even Microsoft's Extended Security Updates program won't save you from the company dropping Microsoft 365 access.
If you rely on Microsoft 365, I recommend moving as much of your workflow to either Google Drive or open-source office software such as LibreOffice as soon as possible. Business customers should be pretty well-served by Google Apps, regardless of their OS, for quite some time.
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Christopher Harper has been a successful freelance tech writer specializing in PC hardware and gaming since 2015, and ghostwrote for various B2B clients in High School before that. Outside of work, Christopher is best known to friends and rivals as an active competitive player in various eSports (particularly fighting games and arena shooters) and a purveyor of music ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Killer Mike to the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack.
- Sarah Jacobsson PurewalSenior Editor, Peripherals
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Giroro All of the MS Office buy-once software will probably keep working, and something like 60%-70% of Microsoft's PC customers refuse to take a downgrade to Windows 11, even when offered for 'free'.Reply
So with people forced to switch back to a superior version of the software, which they might already own, it looks like the only people with any sort of problem here, are the greedy Microsoft execs who still refuse to acknowledge that all of their current products (esp Windows 11), are awful, poorly thought out, poorly executed, WFH COVID garbage that nobody wants. By forcing customers out of their comfort zones with a "use it or lose it" ultimatum, people are going to choose "lose it".
It is a mistake for MS to kill Windows 10 before clearing house in leadership, going back to the drawing board, and pushing out a more "Windows-like" GUI in Windows 12. Like imagine if they killed Windows 7 when their only other option was Windows 8 (which for as bad it was, it at least was more responsive, faster animated, less bloated, and less buggy than Windows 11.) -
stonecarver What a position Microsoft has willingly or unwillingly stepped into with this.Reply
On the one hand I can see Microsoft doing the cutoff when Windows 10 EOL comes as how will they control non patched future PC's still running Windows 10 without patches .
On the other hand If your spending the $30. for extended security patches than you should not be cut off with Microsoft 360.
But than the question always goes back to what about the unpatched users out there.
A very cleaver loop to the only answer is to move to Windows 11 if you want Microsoft 360.
Okay I can understand that as well.
So if your a business paying for Windows 10 security updates and use Microsoft 360 you too will fall into this clever trap.
It seems all roads lead back to moving over to Windows 11.
And just to be clear I don't have an issue with Windows 11 that's not my point.
What else will users loose by making the choice to extend security updates on Windows 10 for the extra year for $30.00
Again it seems like a very cleaver trap. -
jlake3 Ooo... this is about to be a fun one at work!Reply
We're still running Precisions with Skylake Xeons, which apparently have TPM 2.0 but are still not considered officially supported devices for Windows 11. We looked into new workstations last year and I was asked for input on what I'd want, only to later be told that once they priced things out it was determined that new workstations weren't the budget at the moment.
And of course, IT has since ripped out all the installs of Office 201X across the company and replaced all of them with Office 365.
So our options seem to be that we force Win11 onto the unsupported workstations and the unsupported CPU/OS combo renders them no longer a validated platform for the CAD and simulation software they run, we fork over the money for new workstations that are on the QVL list for our software and go through the migration nightmare on MS's timing... or we do something very dumb, like issue KVMs and a second PC for MS Office work, or declare that the fleet of loaner laptops for field use and WFH (that are known to be insufficient for certain things) are now everyone's primary machine. -
hotaru251 Honestly I'd love to see a class action lawsuit agasint MS as this is effectively an unheard of amount of e-waste when a ton of it is still good and just being trashed because software choice.Reply -
txfeinbergs
You would have seen a lawsuit against Google for Chromebooks already then as every one of those devices has an expiration date of 3 to 5 years on them (they may be longer now). Once I found that my 3 year old Chromebook was "EOL", I swore I would never buy another Chromebook and I haven't. The e-waste is epic.hotaru251 said:Honestly I'd love to see a class action lawsuit agasint MS as this is effectively an unheard of amount of e-waste when a ton of it is still good and just being trashed because software choice. -
palladin9479 Yeah regular software will keep working and in theory you can buy limited support.Reply
Ultimately this is why you don't buy subscription software like Office 365. -
Alvar "Miles" Udell Business customers should be pretty well-served by Google Apps, regardless of their OS, for quite some time.
Interesting you say this when Google just increased G Suite Business Edition prices by $2 (or 14%) per user to force users to use Gemini.
https://9to5google.com/2025/01/15/google-workspace-gemini-price-increase/ -
heffeque So... I have paid for 365 family up until mid-2027.Reply
Is Microsoft going to give me my money back, or what are they going to do?
Every time Microsoft efs up their customers with more backwards decisions, it pushes me over more and more towards removing them out of the equation. Netflix already pushed me over, went to Emby, haven't looked back.
I already have a 72 TB NAS and a 24 TB backup NAS... The only reason I'm maintaining 365 Family pack is due to OneDrive's convenience.
This is seriously making me think to go from MSOffice to LibreOffice (which was never an issue), and from OneDrive to Synology Drive (which I haven't used before because OneDrive was working OK). And for me... I might give Linux a try again. I'll see what I do with the rest of the family's PCs. -
USAFRet
As of today (15 Jan 2025), all speculation.heffeque said:Is Microsoft going to give me my money back, or what are they going to do?