Office 2007 End Of Life is only days away

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Are you still using Office 2007? If so, October 10th will be the last day you will be able to receive: Technical support for issues Bug fixes for issu[See the full post at: Office 2007 End Of Life is only days away]

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MrBrian, Elly

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I’m still using word 2003! 🙂

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Charlie, wdburt1

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I keep this mental checklist.  Have read enough online commentary to come to the always-tentative conclusion (given the sources) that Office 2003 may have been the most useful for desktop users.  Certainly, it does not leave me wanting for much, and I use Word and Excel all day long.

A relative, who has worked with each new version, insists that 2010 is at least a modest improvement over 2003, and agrees with others who assert that 2007 was not an improvement.  I have stored a retail copy of 2010.  FWIW.

The fact that Office 2003 does not make me burn with lust for a later version is the core problem Microsoft faces.  What do we do next that can be sold?  Not the same thing as What do we do next that is actually useful?  At some point the minions who Nadella pretends to manage decided to go for hype.

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From an anon poster:

Hi Woody,

Office 2007 support ends on 10/10/17. Microsoft says that NEW updates will stop being issued on that date.

Do you know if OLD, security and non-security, updates for Office 2007 will still be generated by Windows Update after that date — if they are needed by a PC?

I need to reinstall my O/S and programs (Office 2007), but may not have time to do that by 10/10/17. Do you think I’ll have trouble getting all previous, security and non-security, Office 2007 patches through “Windows Update” after October 10?

Thanks.

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Good questions. If it works the same way as for Windows itself, although after this month we won’t be getting any new security patches for Office 2007, we should still be able to install it and get all the patches that were issued up until this month.

At some point that, too, will undoubtedly stop, but I believe that (for example) you can still install XP, activate it, and get all the patches through EOS in 2014. However, patches for Windows 98 disappeared from the Microsoft website years ago.

FWIW, I haven’t seen anything to indicate that Office 2007 will be treated differently than EOS versions of Windows in this regard.

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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woody

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Your replies are very helpful.  Thank you all.

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The updates will probably be available for awhile, but I would recommend using WSUS Offline (and its “Create ISO images” functionality) to download all the Office 2007 updates and create an ISO of them, so when they are inevitably pulled offline, you’ll still have them available for your use. The current version, 11.0.1, has O2K7 under its “Legacy products” tab.

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Elly, SueW, BobbyB

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Kristy, I would be surprised if they were not. I still get 2003 Office updates when I do installs.

CT

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Kirsty

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If you don’t mind working in the cloud, you can use Microsoft Office Online for free:

https://products.office.com/en-us/office-online/documents-spreadsheets-presentations-office-online

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 8.1 running in a VM

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That’s an excellent alternative, by the way – as long as it’s for personal use. The free Office online works well with Chrome and on Chromebooks. One of these days I’m going to try it on my son’s Raspberry Pi.

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It also works very well from Linux Mint 32-bit, with Opera as the browser.

(By the way, Woody, I heard about Microsoft Office Online by reading one of your “20 must-have programs” lists that you send out once a year.)

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 8.1 running in a VM

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Microsoft is hearing something from its customers, in developing Office 19… which will provide for off-line/non-cloud use. Do you think that they will be able to come up with an OS that allows internet access only with user discretion before Win 7 end of life? Are they seeing where their forced choices is sending their customers running away from them, and there really are other options out there?

Non-techy Win 10 Pro and Linux Mint experimenter

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No, that won’t happen.

It doesn’t appear that Microsoft is going to change. I honestly don’t think they can see the harm that they are doing to their reputation through their current actions with regard to Windows. Bill Gates and the other former members of Microsoft are gone, and a new generation is now in charge. Nadella, the current CEO, doesn’t see things like Bill Gates saw them, and that’s why Microsoft is shooting itself in the foot with the way it is handing Windows.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 8.1 running in a VM

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I cannot think of one person who would care. A good 30% of my client use 2003 and with a few exceptions the rest either 2007 or 2010.

There is good side to loss of MS support for a product, they stop lousing it up.

If any one asked me today for a recommendation for a Word or Excel product, I would recommend one of the freebies.

Word used to be a critical component on a computer desktop. It is not today. Email has replaced it for all intents and purposes. Some of my clients even refer to mail as documents.

CT

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If you’re doing any serious writing, as opposed to messages that a century ago were handled by telegraph, then Word or some equivalent is still required.

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anonymous wrote:

(Awaiting moderation) If you’re doing any serious writing, as opposed to messages that a century ago were handled by telegraph, then Word or some equivalent is still required.

The devil’s in the “some equivalent” phrase. At what point is Google Docs, for example, good enough? Some things still require Word .doc or .docx format, but I’m encountering fewer and fewer situations where it’s a hard-and-fast requirement.

Decades ago, I liked to use the nooks and crannies in Word. (“Hacker’s Guide to Word for Windows” may be the only commercial book developed, published and printed with Word.) Now, the little tweaks are mostly a nuisance.

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wdburt1

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Robert Caro writes his masterpieces on a Smith-Corona typewriter and has laid in a stock of them to be sure he has one.  So, yes, there are alternative methods and software for writing a book.  Email is not one of them.

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Just ran an update on the old Dell XPS WinXP Pro machine.  5 patches, 2 for Office 2003 and 3 for the Office 2007 Compatibility Pack SP3.  The P4 XPS still lives with some great legacy offline games that look best on a 4:3 LCD monitor.  Actually patched Adobe Reader to version 11.1.22.

Network cable is detached for routine play, but some games like to phone home for DRM so it is connected until it starts and them the plug is pulled with no effect on the gaming.

Vintage Office 2003 looks clean and fresh ;-).  Maybe absence does make the heart grow fonder.  I have 2010 on the Win7Pro box, and will wait to see what Office 2019 brings, but I am afraid it is too late.  I doubt it will be enough since Win7 is EOL the next year.  I will be on LibreOffice by then on Linux. or LibreOffice on MacOS.  Never 10!

So many friends are now on iPads.  Facetime is BIG.  I have scored a few Win8.1 laptops damaged by failed Win10 installs for Linux.  Those folks went to an iPad and never looked back after being unable to rely on Win10 updating.  Most still have an older desktop for serious work, but many now call the desktop the “dust collector” and use it for TurboTax only.

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Canadian Tech

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I have Office 2007 Home & Student version installed on a couple of computers, but I haven’t had to use it for anything more complicated than a simple letter in over 5 years. Moving forward, I’m planning to switch to Libre Office which I’ve been testing along with several version of Linux and find more than adequate for my needs.  Your mileage may vary.

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Elly

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I’m using Office 2007 at home for very basic stuff and never open files from internet on it. Couldn’t care less about the updates.

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