Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office releases before Office 2013 are now too old to be used safely and should not be installed on your PC. None of these old versions are supported by Microsoft:
- Office 2000 – last updates released 14 July 2009 (Details)
- Office XP – last updates released 12 July 2011 (Details)
- Office 2003 – last updates released 4 August 2014 (Details)
- Office 2007 – last updates released 10 October 2017 (Details)
- Office 2010 – last updates released 13 October 2020 (Details)
Microsoft Office releases after Office 2010 are still OK to use and continue to receive security updates:
- Office 2013 – updates continue until 4 November 2023 (Details)
- Office 2016 – updates continue until 14 October 2025 (Details)
- Office 2019 – updates continue until 14 October 2025 (Details)
- Office 2021 – updates continue until 13 October 2026 (Details)
- Office 365 is a subscription to the latest version of Office, so if you use that, you’re always up-to-date.
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows released before Windows 8.1 are now too old to be used safely and should not be installed on your PC. None of these old versions are supported by Microsoft:
- Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME
- Windows NT, Windows 2000
- Windows XP – last updates released 8 April 2014 (Details)
- Windows Vista – last updates released 11 April 2017 (Details)
- Windows 7 – last updates released 14 January 2020 (Details)
Microsoft Windows Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 are still OK to use and continue to receive security updates:
- Windows 8.1 – updates will continue until 10 January 10 2023 (Details)
(you must have installed the Windows 8.1 update) - Windows 10 – updates will continue so long as you use a recent version of Windows 10 – see below
Windows 10
Windows 10 is typically updated with big upgrades twice a year (each spring and autumn). Each of the major release of Windows 10 is supported for 18 months after its release, so you must make sure that you have a current version of Windows 10 installed because some are already too old and are no longer supported.
| Windows 10 version | Build number | Released | Supported until |
| version 21H2 | 19044 | November 2021 | June 2023 |
| version 21H1 | 19043 | May 2021 | December 2022 |
| version 20H2 | 19042 | October 2020 | May 2022 |
| version 2004 | 19041 | May 2020 | December 2021 |
| version 1909 | 18363 | November 2019 | May 2021 |
| version 1903 | 18362 | May 2019 | December 2020 |
| version 1809 | 17763 | October 2018 | April 2020 |
| version 1803 | 17134 | April 2018 | November 2019 |
| version 1709 | 16299 | October 2017 | April 2019 |
| version 1703 | 15063 | April 2017 | October 2018 |
| version 1607 | 14393 | August 2016 | April 2018 |
| version 1511 | 10586 | 10 November 2015 | October 2017 |
| version 1507 | 10240 | July 2015 | May 2017 |
Which version of Windows do you have?
To identify which version of Windows you’re using, press Win + R and then type winver and press Enter
(The Win key is at the bottom left corner: it might say “Win” on it, but probably just has the Windows flag logo. It will be between the Control and Alt keys)
In the screenshot above, the PC is using version 1803 of Windows 10. If you’re using such an old version of Windows 10 today, you need to get it updated to a version which is still supported (see the table above).
