Skip to main content

Microsoft is axing support for its own apps on Windows 10

The Surface Laptop 7 on a table in front of a window.
Luke Larsen / Digital Trends

Microsoft has announced that support for Microsoft 365 apps on Windows 10 will end this year on October 14, as reported by The Verge. This is also the end-of-support date for Windows 10 as a whole, but the move is still a little surprising considering that Microsoft is now offering the Windows 10 Extended Security Updates (ESU) Program.

Anyone who joins this program for $30 can continue to safely use Windows 10 for a whole extra year — so you might think that Microsoft would let them continue to use the Office apps too. That said, it’s not like the apps will disappear, they just won’t receive any more updates. According to Microsoft, this could cause “performance and reliability issues over time” but whether these issues will pop up within the ESU program’s duration or not is anyone’s guess.

Recommended Videos

The switch from Windows 10 to Windows 11 has been long and painful for Microsoft — even after three years, there’s still a substantial chunk of people who are still using the older operating system. There are plenty of reasons why — lots of people still use machines that don’t meet Windows 11 hardware requirements, and others have been permanently scared off by years of scathing public opinion that Windows 11 is nowhere near as good as Windows 10. It’s also taken a long time for gamers to come around to Windows 11, though it recently overtook Windows 10 for the first time in October 2024’s Steam hardware survey.

Whatever the reasons, this reluctance to upgrade has clearly been driving Microsoft insane. The company is trying everything from full-screen upgrade prompts to awkward marketing tactics declaring 2025 as “the year of the Windows 11 PC refresh.”

Unfortunately for Microsoft, however, there is a huge number of people who only own PCs out of necessity and won’t even think about replacing them until they literally stop working. There are also plenty of businesses reluctant to upgrade since their current company PCs still work perfectly well in every other way.

In a lot of ways, it feels like the world just didn’t need another iteration of Windows yet. Perhaps the company really should consider supporting a basic no-new-stuff version of its OS for all the people who just don’t care. It might be expensive, but surely all of this drama, failure, and marketing around upgrades is expensive too.

Willow Roberts
Willow Roberts has been a Computing Writer at Digital Trends for a year and has been writing for about a decade. She has a…
Another frustrating reason to upgrade to Windows 11
A person looking frustrated at a laptop while sitting at a table.

As if you didn't already need plenty of reasons to finally upgrade to Windows 11, here's yet another.

The latest Windows 10 update, version KB5048239, isn't just failing to install -- it's actually updating successfully over and over again. This is the update that Microsoft first released in November 2024 on 21H2 and 22H2. As TechRadar reports, the software giant is rereleasing it again this month.

Read more
The 5 Mac apps that keep me from moving to Windows
The side profile of the MacBook Pro M4.

This year will long be remembered as the year Windows PC makers fought back. Qualcomm first kicked off the AI PC era with the Snapdragon X Elite, and then Intel responded with the Lunar Lake platform.

For the first time nearly a decade, I've found myself tempted to return to Windows. But there's still one problem: the app gap.

Read more
Here’s why some PC gamers shouldn’t install the latest Windows 11 update
Overwatch 2 running on the LG OLED 27 gaming monitor.

The latest Windows 11 update, codenamed 24H2, has been a troubled rollout for Microsoft, but one thing's been clear from the beginning: PC gamers should wait to install it. Let's add another issue to the list, shall we?

As spotted by Windows Latest, Microsoft has confirmed in an update to its Windows 11 24H2 problems page, that Windows 11 24H2 is causing issues with its Auto HDR feature. The result of the bug is that incorrect colors are being displayed or, even worse, are breaking games entirely and causing them to not be responsive.

Read more