[German]On October 14, 2025, Microsoft Office 2016 and 2019 has expired and Microsoft will no longer provide support for them. This is an opportunity to think about your situation. You could continue to use these versions securely for another five years. You could switch to Microsoft 365 and let Microsoft take care of you. Or you could choose to exit – as some organizations have done.
End of support for Office 2016/2019
With the October 2025 patch day, both Microsoft Office versions 2016 and 2019 are no longer supported and will no longer receive security updates. I pointed this out some time ago in the blog post End of support for Windows 10 and Office 2016/2019 in October 2025 – Part 1..
The applications from Office 2016, Office 2019, Visio 2016/2019, and Project 2016/2019 will of course continue to work and can still be used. The problem, however, is that security updates will no longer be rolled out, which could potentially lead to problems. Owners of Microsoft Office 2016 and 2019 have the following options:
- You can switch to Microsoft Office 2021 (support ends October 13, 2026) or Microsoft Office 2024 LTSC (support ends October 9, 2029).
- You can surrender to Microsoft and switch to Microsoft 365 (which also includes the Office applications as a subscription solution).
- You can do something drastic and completely abandon Microsoft Office in favor of, for example, LibreOffice.
- You can simply stick with Microsoft Office 2016 and Microsoft Office 2019, but secure the applications.
Below are a few thoughts on this topic and what to expect.
Microsoft 365 is a bad idea
Microsoft promotes Microsoft 365 as the successor to the expired Office versions as standard. But you should be aware that this is a subscription-based solution, which means you have to pay continuously.
In addition, Microsoft has the fatal habit of bombarding users with half-baked and buggy new features, depending on the release channel. What's more, the trend is moving towards "saving to the cloud" and Copilot is being pushed on people. On the one hand, this is a GDPR issue. On the other hand, it's safe to assume that a lot of information will leak out and that sooner or later there will be serious collateral damage.
The Register outlined where Microsoft 365 is likely headed in its article Microsoft seeding Washington schools with free AI to get kids and teachers hooked.
Those who absolutely want to have a newer version of Microsoft Office in corporate environments but do not want to or cannot rely on Microsoft 365 are likely well positioned with Microsoft Office 2024 LTSC at present.
Secure Microsoft Office 2016/2019 another for five years
My recommendation to all users of Microsoft Office 2016/2019 who do not rely on compatibility with Microsoft 365 services or Exchange Online – which is probably the case for many private individuals and smaller companies – would be to continue using the software and simply secure it.
To protect Microsoft Office 2016/2019 against vulnerabilities, I referred to the relevant solution from ACROS Security in my blog post 0patch secures Microsoft Office 2016 and 2019 after October 2025. For private use, it's even free – companies can get the micropatches for around $35/year per machine. I think it's a solid solution – and with the 0patch solution, you also get Windows secured. The whole thing lasts for a full five years.
Dump Microsoft Office
At this point, it would also be reasonable to ask whether the end of support for Microsoft Office 2016/2019 might be the right time to say goodbye to Microsoft – at least as far as Office applications or Microsoft Outlook are concerned. Outlook Classic will only be supported until 2029 anyway, with Microsoft pushing people towards the Outlook new app. However, the latter is a no-go (see Warning: Microsoft Outlook app breaks (company) security). I recommend LibreOffice (and Thunderbird as Outlook replacement). And yes, it seems that even large organizations can say goodbye to Microsoft Office.
China Morning reported in the article Sending a message: Beijing issues documents without Word format amid US tensions that China's ministry relies on WPS Office. In the article Austrian Armed Forces goes open source (LibreOffice), I reported back in September 2025 that the Austrian Armed Forces in the neighboring country were also phasing out Microsoft Office.
I had also missed the other thing – Schleswig Holstein announced in this press release on October 6, 2025, that the state administration had completed the six-month transition process from Microsoft Exchange and Outlook to the open source solutions Open-Xchange and Thunderbird. The Register hat this article about that. This involved migrating more than 40,000 mailboxes with a total of well over 100 million emails and calendar entries. Schleswig-Holstein completed the switchover of its email system on October 2, 2025, and now considers itself a big step closer to its goal of a digitally sovereign IT workplace.
Similar articles:
Windows 10: 0patch provides 5 years of additional support
0patch secures Microsoft Office 2016 and 2019 after October 2025
End of support for Windows 10 and Office 2016/2019 in October 2025 – Part 1
Running Windows 10 and Office 2016/2019 securely after October 2025 – Part 2
