Microsoft 365 Apps—Support Ends On Windows 10 This Year

With 2025 underway, Microsoft is ramping up its campaign targeting the 800 million users yet to upgrade from Windows 11, before it is retired in October. “What does this mean?” the company warned on Tuesday. “With security threats on the rise, it is imperative you upgrade, immediately.” That’s not all though, Microsoft also issued some surprisingly bad news for all those users who need to act now.

“Microsoft 365 Apps will no longer be supported after October 14, 2025, on Windows 10 devices,” the company confirmed. “To use Microsoft 365 Applications on your device, you will need to upgrade to Windows 11.”

So, will that be the kicker for the millions stubbornly sticking with Windows 10? And how many of those will plump for the $30, 12-month extended Windows 10 support option? What will that mean for 365, and what about enterprises who have the option to extend Windows 10 for more than just a year — at a steep cost?

Microsoft’s most recent support document adds little helpful detail. “Microsoft 365 apps will no longer be supported on Windows 10 after it reaches end of support,” just as “Microsoft 365 apps are no longer supported on Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 now that these operating systems have reached their end of support dates.” This will be the same for Windows 10 from October.

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Microsoft does soften this a touch later in its support document: “If you're running Microsoft 365 on a Windows 10 device, the applications will continue to function as before. However, we strongly recommend upgrading to Windows 11 to avoid performance and reliability issues over time.”

The more critical issue remains the lack of Windows 10 security updates — absent a paid extended support option. And the complexity here remains the number of Windows 10 PCs that do not meet the hardware hurdle to make the upgrade. “Let’s tackle the elephant in the room,” Microsoft says, “you’ll need to confirm that your PC meets the minimum system requirements for the update.” For those users the only option is a new PC — but helpfully Microsoft has badged 2025 the year of the Windows 11 PC upgrade. Quite what difference that will make remains to be seen.

Windows 10 is two-months into a remarkable reversal against Windows 11, with its market share actually growing back rather than reducing. When the January numbers are available we’ll know if that trend has continued. Meantime, you can expect more “upgrade immediately” messaging to come out.

This latest warning came the same day as Microsoft’s biggest Patch Tuesday in years, with multiple zero-days. If that isn’t enough to focus minds on upgrading before security support runs out, I’m not sure what would be.