Microsoft will halt new Office features for Windows 10 in 2026

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Microsoft will halt new Office features for Windows 10 in 2026

Security updates will continue, but users will have to upgrade to Windows 11 if they want the latest Microsoft 365 feature improvements.

Published on 15th July 2025

Microsoft’s advertised end-of-support date for Windows 10 is October 14, 2025. But in reality, the company will gradually wind down support for the enduring popular operating system over the next three years. Microsoft would really like you to upgrade to Windows 11, especially if it also means upgrading to a new PC, but it also doesn’t want to leave hundreds of millions of home and business PCs totally unprotected.

Those competing goals have led to lots of announcements and re-announcements and clarifications about updates for both Windows 10 itself and the Office/Microsoft 365 productivity apps that many Windows users run on their PCs.

The latest addition to the pile comes via an update to a support document that outlined when Windows 10 PCs would stop receiving new features for the continuously updated Microsoft 365 apps. Most home users will stop getting new features in August 2026, while business users running the Enterprise versions can expect to stop seeing new features in either October 2026 or January 2027, depending on the product they’re using.

Microsoft had previously committed to supporting its Office apps through October 2028—both the Microsoft 365 versions and perpetually licensed versions like Office 2021 and Office 2024 that don’t get continuous feature updates. That timeline isn’t changing, but it will apparently only cover security and bug-fixing updates rather than updates that add new features.

And while the apps will still be getting updates, Microsoft’s support document makes it clear that users won’t always be able to get fixes for bugs that are unique to Windows 10. If an Office issue exists solely on Windows 10 but not on Windows 11, the official guidance from Microsoft support is that users should upgrade to Windows 11; any support for Windows 10 will be limited to “troubleshooting assistance only,” and “technical workarounds might be limited or unavailable.”

To gather it all into one place, here are all the major things to know about continuing to use Windows 10 after this October:

If you or your IT administrator doesn’t do something, Windows 10 will stop being updated on October 14, 2025.
Individuals running Windows 10 Home or Pro can get a single year of Extended Security Updates (ESUs) relatively easily by paying $30, signing into the Windows Backup app, or spending 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points (these generally all require use of a Microsoft Account). After October 2026, these users will need to update to Windows 11.
Businesses, educational institutions, and other large organisations can get up to three years of ESUs by paying a per-PC rate that increases every year.
Every version of Office/Microsoft 365 will stop getting new feature updates on Windows 10 between August 2026 and January 2027.
Supported versions of Microsoft Office and the Microsoft 365 apps will be eligible for security-only fixes on Windows 10 through the end of 2028, but with limited support for issues specific to Windows 10.
Microsoft will continue releasing new definitions for its Defender anti-malware product through “at least” October 2028.
Some third-party apps may stop working on Windows 10 as companies release new versions and developers begin prioritising Windows 11. But major web browsers like Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Firefox tend to support old Windows versions for about as long as Microsoft is updating them in some capacity.