Microsoft has backtracked on its plan to end support for Office apps on Windows 10 later this year and announced that it will continue providing security updates for three more years, until 2028.

This announcement comes after the company warned in January that it would drop support for Microsoft 365 applications, and they’ll have to upgrade their systems to Windows 11 to keep using them after October 14, 2025.

“In the interest of maintaining your security while you upgrade to Windows 11, we will continue providing security updates for Microsoft 365 on Windows 10 for a total of three years after Windows 10 end of support, ending on October 10, 2028,” Redmond says in a support document updated last month.

In a separate document updated last week, the company added that these updates will be delivered using the standard Office update channels.

“Although apps such as Word will continue to work after Windows 10 reaches end of support, using an unsupported operating system can cause performance and reliability issues when running Microsoft 365 Apps. If your organization is using Microsoft 365 Apps on devices running Windows 10, those devices should move to Windows 11,” Redmond added.

​​Microsoft also reminded users in April that Office 2016 and Office 2019 will reach the end of extended support six months from now, on October 14. The company provides upgrade guidance on migrating from older versions of Office to Microsoft 365 Apps on its support website.

Although Windows 10 will reach the end of support in eight months, over 52% of Windows systems worldwide still run Windows 10, while just over 43% run Windows 11, according to Statcounter Global data.

​Even though the company has been pushing customers to upgrade their devices since Windows 11’s October 2021 launch, even naming 2025 “the year of the Windows 11 PC refresh” earlier this year, users are reluctant to switch due to “non-negotiable” TPM 2.0 support requirements.

​While the Windows 10 end of support is rapidly approaching, the company announced in October 2024 that Windows 10 home users could delay switching to Windows 11 for another year if they’re ready to pay $30 for Extended Security Updates (ESU).

Additionally, Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) releases like Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021 and Long-Term Servicing Branch (LTSB) releases like Windows 10 2016 LTSB that cater to specialized devices, such as medical and industrial systems, will also receive updates way beyond October 2025.