Amongst the many warnings about Windows 10 being out of support later this month, you may well have missed the fact that running a couple of other popular Microsoft products also becomes a security liability on the very same day.
October 14th marks the end of extended support for two "boxed" versions of Microsoft Office suite - both 2016 and 2019. After this date, these products will no longer receive security updates, bug fixes, or technical support. While the software won’t suddenly stop working, as we've coveed many times, running outdated and unsupported systems is an ongoing security risk.
For those that need to upgrade, Microsoft would very much prefer that people switch to their 365 subscription system rather than the "perpetual licence" style versions that have historically been the primary way to buy Office.
If you can't or won't use 365 but want to carry on using Office, then Office 2024 is the only way to go. However, it's worth noting that the shelf life of these "numbered" versions is far less than it used to be. Office 2016 got 10 years of security updates, whereas end of life for Office 2024 is in just 4 years time. You won't be surprised to hear it isn't half the price...
This end of support arrives on the very same day that Windows 10 hits end of life. We've covered this multiple times before, so we won't go into any detail on this one again. Read our article from last month if you're still running this operating system and need to know what your options are now.