Newsletter Archives

• Microsoft 365 and Office in 2024 and beyond

  Posted on December 30, 2024 at 02:43 CST by Peter Deegan • Comment in the Forums

  MICROSOFT 365

  

  By Peter Deegan

  Let’s do a low drone pass over another year of innovation and hype in Microsoft 365 and Office.

  Amazingly, there were some non-AI highlights.

  As I review what happened in 2024, I’ll also provide a few notes about what to watch out for in 2025.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.53.0, 2024-12-30).

  Microsoft 365 Advanced Paste, Aptos, ARM, Calibri, Copilot, Copilot Credits, Excel, fonts, Newsletters, Office 2016, Office 2019, Office 2024, Publisher

• Is Office 2024 worth getting excited about?

  Posted on October 14, 2024 at 02:44 CDT by Peter Deegan • Comment in the Forums

  MICROSOFT 365

  

  By Peter Deegan

  The new single-purchase, non-subscription version of Microsoft Office, released just a few weeks ago, is a replacement for Office 2021 and Office 2019.

  Those with a Microsoft 365 plan need not think about Office 2024, because the latter has a smaller set of features than the subscription version of Office.

  In this column, I’ll discuss what’s in Office 2024 and what it doesn’t include — and some features that Microsoft is uncharacteristically quiet about. I’ll also mention where to buy it for less.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.42.0, 2024-10-14).

  Microsoft 365 Access, Excel, Newsletters, Office, Office 2019, Office 2021, Office 2024, PowerPoint, Word

• MS-DEFCON 2: Microsoft and Apple betas near finish line

  Posted on August 8, 2024 at 02:45 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.32.1 • 2024-08-08

  

  By Susan Bradley

  Hold off on updates from both companies until they are fully vetted.

  With so much activity around forthcoming Windows updates, continued caution is recommended. That’s why I’m raising the MS-DEFCON level to 2.

  I realize that the window between today and last week’s Alert has been brief. It’s just a matter of the calendar — more testing time was needed last month, and Patch Tuesday is next week.

  Anyone can read the full MS-DEFCON Alert (21.32.1, 2024-08-08).

  AskWoody Plus Alert, MS-DEFCON Alerts, Black Hat USA, CVE-2024-36971, iOS 18, KB5001716, KB5025885, MS-DEFCON, MS-DEFCON 2, Office 2019, Patch Lady Posts, Windows 11 24H2

• My 2023 rear-view mirror and 2024 crystal ball

  Posted on December 26, 2023 at 02:45 CST by Peter Deegan • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 20.52 • 2023-12-26

  Look for our BONUS issue on January 1, 2024! Happy New Year!

  MICROSOFT 365

  

  By Peter Deegan

  Let’s first check the 2023 rear-view mirror to see what good, and not-so-good, things happened with Microsoft 365.

  I’ll look at just some of the changes, perhaps not the most-hyped-but-possibly-overlooked ones in the never-ending road that is Microsoft marketing. Then I’ll peer over the steering wheel to see what will or might happen in 2024.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.52.0, 2023-12-26).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Microsoft 365 Aptos, Excel, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft Designer, Newsletters, Office 2016, Office 2019, Office 2021, Outlook (new), Python, Windows Copilot

• January 2021 Office non-Security Updates are available

  Posted on January 5, 2021 at 12:14 CST by PKCano • Comment in the Forums

  The January 2021 Office non-Security updates have been released Tuesday, January 5, 2021. They are not included in the DEFCON-4 approval for the December 2020 patches. Unless you have a specific need to install them, you should wait until Susan Bradley (Patch Lady) approves them and any problems have been reported.

  Remember, Susan’s patching sequence and recommendations are based on a business environment that has IT support and may have time constraints on the updating process. Consumer patching should be more cautious due to limited technical and mechanical resources. The latter is the reason for the AskWoody DEFCON system.

  Office 2016
  Update for Microsoft Access 2016 (KB4484509)
  Update for Microsoft Office 2016 (KB4493157)
  Update for Microsoft Outlook 2016 (KB4493166)
  Update for Microsoft Project 2016 (KB4493159)

  There were no non-security listings for Office 2010 (which reached EOS on October 13, 2020) nor for Office 2013.
  On April 10, 2018, Office 2013 reached End of Mainstream Support. Extended Support will end for Office 2013 on April 11, 2023.
  Office 2016 also reached  End of Mainstream Support on October 13, 2020. EOS for Office 2016 is October 14, 2025.

  Updates are for the .msi version (persistent). Office 365 and C2R are not included.

  Security updates for all supported versions of Microsoft Office are released on the second Tuesday of the month (Patch Tuesday).

  Office Patches/Security January 2021 Black Tuesday, January 2021 Office non-security, Office 2010, Office 2013, Office 2019

• Microsoft removes non-subscription SKUs from Home Use Program

  Posted on August 9, 2019 at 17:18 CDT by joep517 • Comment in the Forums

  Microsoft giveth and Microsoft taketh away. This may not affect many but is a nice perk if you work for a large company using Office. Here’s an article by Mary Jo Foley describing the details of the changes – [url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-removes-office-2019-from-its-home-use-program-benefits]Microsoft removes Office 2019 from its Home Use Program benefits[/url].

  Office News Office 2019, Office 365

• Of course you don’t want to buy Office 2019

  Posted on February 7, 2019 at 07:45 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Nice of Microsoft to reinforce that point.

  https://youtu.be/aR_o2uZ4sjU

  Microsoft is saying more about its customers than its products with the three new ads. MS obviously doesn’t think its customers are savvy enough to figure out the “tests” are rigged to use features in Office 365 that aren’t in Office 2019. They aren’t Challenges. They’re feature demos.

  Of course the products are different. The feature sets are different. And, of course, reliance on the internet is different — when Microsoft’s servers go down, you can take your fancy cookie-cutter resume building program and stick it where the sun don’t shine.

  I guess that’s something good to know if you need to list the population of every state in a spreadsheet. Except it’s, you know, old data.

  I recall vividly that you couldn’t even get Excel to show updated stock quotes until a year ago. I moved to Google Sheets for that very reason. Never looked back.

  UPDATE: Still confused about the differences between Office 2019 and Office 365? Gregg Keizer at Computerworld just published an in-depth look. Suffice it to say the landscape’s changed greatly, and it’ll no doubt change again.

  Office News Office 2019, Office 365

• January 2019 non-Security Office Updates have been posted

  Posted on January 3, 2019 at 06:13 CST by PKCano • Comment in the Forums

  The January 2019 non-Security Office updates were released Wednesday, January 2, 2019. They are not included in the DEFCON4 approval for the December 2018 patches. Unless you have a specific need to install them, you should wait until Susan Bradley (Patch Lady) approves them and any problems have been reported.

  Office 2010

  Update for Microsoft Excel 2010 (KB4461627)
  Update for Microsoft Office 2010 (KB4032217)
  Update for Microsoft Office 2010 (KB4032225)
  Update for Microsoft Office 2010 (KB4461616)

  Office 2013

  Update for Microsoft Project 2013 (KB4461560)
  Update for Skype for Business 2015 (KB4461557)

  Office 2016

  Update for Skype for Business 2016 (KB4461586)
  Update for Microsoft Excel 2016 (KB4461600)
  Update for Microsoft Office 2016 (KB3203480)
  Update for Microsoft Office 2016 (KB4032230)
  Update for Microsoft Office 2016 (KB4461435)
  Update for Microsoft Office 2016 (KB4461533)
  Update for Microsoft Project 2016 (KB4461587)
  Update for Microsoft Visio 2016 (KB4461531)

  There were no non-security listings for Office 2007 (which is out of support).
  Office 365 and C2R are not included.
  Security updates for all supported versions of Microsoft Office are released on the second Tuesday of the month (Patch Tuesday).

  UPDATE: As of January 4, 2019, the four January 2019 Updates for Office 2010 (msi version) have been pulled by Microsoft and are no longer available for download. If you have problems with the Office programs, Microsoft recommends uninstalling the updates.

  Office Patches/Security January 2019 Black Tuesday, Office 2010, Office 2013, Office 2016, Office 2019, Office non-security patches, Office non-security updates, Office updates

• Terms announced for the “bought” version of Office 2019

  Posted on October 2, 2018 at 07:46 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  And they aren’t pretty.

  In the US, $440 will buy you one copy of Office Pro 2019, good for one PC. The ad goes on to say:

  Classic 2019 versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook, plus Publisher and Access

  Microsoft support included for 60 days at no extra cost

  Licensed for home and commercial use All languages included. Compatible with Windows 10*

  *Go to office.com/systemrequirements for compatible versions of Windows 10 and for other feature requirements.

  The UWP/Metro/Microsoft Store version of OneNote (which isn’t available as a standard desktop app any more) has been free for years. It’s kinda ironic that Microsoft has orphaned the UWP versions of Office, while switching OneNote over to UWP (and Android and iOS and Mac and web). Then they offer the free UWP version of OneNote as a benefit for the very expensive Office Pro 2019.

  I mean, it’s pretty obvious MS doesn’t want to sell any of these, right? Or am I missing something?

  Office News Office 2019

• The future of Office: Click-to-Run, on Win10 only

  Posted on February 2, 2018 at 07:28 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Looks like Office is in for some major changes.

  The next version of Office, called Office 2019, is due out the gate in the second half of 2018.

  The official Changes to Office and Windows servicing and support document, posted yesterday, still has my head swimming.

  If I understand things correctly:

  • Office 2019 will be “Office 365-style” click-to-run only, unless you put it on a server. Starting with this new version, you have to rent Office, you can’t buy it.
  • Office 2019 will only run on currently-supported versions of Windows 10. But it will not run on Server 2016. That means you’ll have to keep your version of Win10 updated if you want to continue to rent Office 2019.
  • Office 2019 will not run on the current Long-Term Servicing version of Win10. But it will run on the new Win10 LTSC that will be released, sometime, later this year. Similarly, it won’t run on the current Server LTSC, but will run on the new Server LTSC, due out sometime this year.

  Martin Brinkmann has a good explainer on ghacks.

  Mary Jo Foley tackles the topic from a functional perspective on ZDNet.

  (Personally, I’m moving almost everything over to Google Docs and Sheets. I have a couple of complex macros — including the KBNew lister — that will continue to need Excel, but Excel 2013 works fine, and I own it. Win10 All-In-One For Dummies submissions have to go in Word. So far, anyway — the editorial staff may figure out Google Docs one of these days. But I’ve moved everything else to Google Docs and Sheets. Suggest you do, too.)

  Uncategorized Office 2019, Office Click-to-Run

• Office 2007 End Of Life is only days away

  Posted on October 4, 2017 at 22:57 CDT by Kirsty • Comment in the Forums

  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 issues that are discovered
  Security fixes for vulnerabilities that are discovered

  You can check out the Microsoft Support page with the details here

  Meanwhile, the recent announcement of Office 2019, due to be released next year, being offline/desktop software has been greeted with headlines such as:

  Scared of that new-fangled ‘cloud’? Office 2019 to the rescue!
  Next release promises nice offline features
  (on theregister.co.uk)

  Microsoft Office 2019 Coming in Second Half of 2018
  New Standalone Version of Microsoft Office Coming in 2018
  (on groovypost.com)

  Office News Office 2007 EOL, Office 2019