Help Desk Blogger

"Word opened fine this morning, so is Office 2021 really dead, and do I have to pay for a new one?" Start with the one check that tells you whether this affects you at all. Open Word, click File, then Account, and read the product name under Product Information. If it ends in 2021, the Office 2021 end of support date of 13 October 2026 is yours, and it has now passed. If it says Microsoft 365, you are on a subscription and nothing has changed for you.

Still here? Then check what has actually stopped. Nothing on your screen changes. Everything underneath it does.

What Office 2021 end of support changes on your PC

The change is invisible: Office 2021 apps still open and save your files, but Microsoft stopped every security fix and every form of technical help for them on 13 October 2026, and it is not selling an extension.

Microsoft's own End of support for Office 2021 notice, updated in June 2026, is blunt: there is "no extension and no extended security updates." That is the sharp difference from Windows 10, where Microsoft does sell extra patches, as our guide to checking your Windows 10 ESU enrolment through October 2027 explains. Here there is no lifeline to buy. Staying means staying unpatched.

In practice the danger arrives by email. A booby-trapped Word attachment built around a flaw found next spring will work against your copy for good, because no patch is coming.

But the notice also says your apps "may continue to function," so panic-buying makes no sense. I'd push back on the usual advice to upgrade immediately: work out which exit fits, then take it within weeks.

It is the second Microsoft deadline in a fortnight, after the Windows 11 24H2 cutoff and its one-restart fix, and the pattern repeats: the software runs while the risk grows.

Four numbers from Office Watch's June 2026 rundown decide which exit is cheapest. They are US list prices; no verified UK price was available at writing, so check Microsoft's UK store before paying.

The support date on the replacement matters more than its price. Buying Office 2024 does not end this question, it postpones it to the end of the decade, when the same choice returns.

Should I buy Office 2024 or Microsoft 365?

For a single PC, a one-time Office 2024 licence costs less than Microsoft 365 over its support life, even in the Outlook tier, and the subscription earns its price mainly in households sharing three or more PCs.

The table lines up the two paid routes, cost first. Staying put with the free browser apps is the third route, and it sits in the final row.

The right-hand column says it plainly: the subscription pays only when shared. My view, against Microsoft's own pitch, is that a one-PC home renting Microsoft 365 just to keep Word patched is overpaying.

Can I still use Office 2021 after end of support?

Yes, you can keep using Office 2021 for as long as it runs, but it is only a sensible choice on a home PC where you rarely open attachments from strangers and already have a plan to move.

The quiet winner for many readers is the free browser versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, patched by Microsoft on its own servers. They lack some desktop features, which rarely matters for letters and a household budget.

Waiting sounds clever and mostly isn't. Office Watch calls a new one-time Office "likely but not confirmed," so you would be betting on an unannounced product while unpatched. Patches misfire too, as the Windows 11 September update faults showed, but a buggy fix beats no fix, or at least it does once the follow-up lands.

• On a shared family PC, anyone's careless click hits your unpatched copy.
• On a work or school laptop, Microsoft says follow your IT department.
• If a reinstall fails to activate, no Microsoft support line will help.
• Holding out for the next one-time Office means waiting unpatched.

Pay or stay? For most single-PC homes the answer is pay once or go free, not subscribe. Tonight, open File, then Account in Word, and if the name ends in 2021, pick your exit before the weekend: browser apps for light use, Office 2024 for one PC, Microsoft 365 only for a shared household.

Your PC says 24H2. Windows Update says you're up to date. And somewhere you read that something ends on 13 October, which is next Tuesday. That date is the 24H2 end of support deadline for Home and Pro editions, and for most machines the fix is one restart, not a reinstall. Here is the check order, fastest first.

How do I check if my PC is on 24H2?

Press the Windows key and R, type winver, press Enter, and read the build number: if it starts 26100 you are on 24H2, and the security clock on your PC runs out next Tuesday.

Only the first five digits matter. Microsoft's release health page lists the newest 24H2 build as 26100.9550, from 22 September, so anything beginning 26100 is 24H2 however recently it was patched. That's the trap: a fully patched 24H2 machine looks healthy right up to the day the updates stop.

Next, the edition, named in the same box. On Home or Pro, 13 October 2026 is the last Patch Tuesday that reaches you. Enterprise and Education editions of 24H2 get fixes until 12 October 2027, per the same Microsoft page, so a work laptop has another year while the personal Pro machine beside it does not. Edition decides urgency, not age.

Then Windows Update. In Settings, check that updates aren't paused and that the toggle for getting the latest updates early is on. Nothing breaks on the day. Well, nothing you'd notice: the PC boots, apps open, and every flaw found after that Tuesday stays open on your machine.

If last month's patch made you pause, see our guide to Windows 11 September update problems and what KB5129195 fixes: none is a reason to stay on 24H2. An older Windows 10 machine has more room, because Windows 10 extended security updates now run to October 2027, if enrolment went through.

Four numbers decide whether this is a five-minute job or a weekend one. The date comes from Microsoft's Windows 11 release information page and the single restart from TechRepublic's 2 October report; feature updates are free, and the last figure is our own arithmetic on Microsoft's end dates.

The restart figure is the one people doubt. Newer versions reach a 24H2 PC as an enablement package, a small update that switches on features already on your drive. Files, apps and settings stay put.

Should I skip 25H2 and go straight to 26H2?

Yes for almost every home PC on 24H2: 26H2 installs the same way as 25H2, with one restart, but its Home and Pro support runs a full year longer.

The usual advice is to take whatever Windows Update offers. This month that advice is out of date: TechRepublic's August and October reports say Microsoft's automatic route for home PCs leads to 25H2, while 26H2 arrives gradually. Accept the default and you get the shorter of the two.

Read down the right-hand column and the choice makes itself. Only timing and 23H2 push back, and timing has a manual fix: if Windows Update hasn't offered 26H2, Microsoft's Installation Assistant installs it now.

What can block the 24H2 end of support fix?

Three known compatibility problems can hold a PC back from 26H2, and an older 23H2 install cannot take the quick route at all, so check both before you assume Windows Update is broken.

Microsoft blocks the upgrade where it knows something will break, a safeguard hold. As of 3 October, TechRepublic counted three, covering USB audio devices, Credential Guard and virtual desktop setups. If you record through a USB audio interface, that first one is about you.

Here's where I part company with the forums, which treat forcing past a hold as the obvious move. My view: if your income runs through that interface, take 25H2 now and let 26H2 follow once the hold lifts. A dead recording setup costs more than a second restart next year. That's opinion, and Microsoft hasn't said when the holds clear.

The other dead end is 23H2. Its Home and Pro editions are already out of support, and its latest build is 22631.7584, so a reading starting 22631 means the enablement package won't apply. You need the full feature update, and free space on an ageing drive starts to matter. If it's tight, our look at whether to buy RAM and SSD upgrades now or wait in 2026 covers what a replacement costs.

• A pause that runs past 13 October holds you on an unsupported build until it expires.
• A held PC looks like one not yet offered; Microsoft's release health page tells them apart.
• Work PCs follow your IT team's schedule; ask first.
• Back up anyway: one restart is normal, not promised.

So here's the job: open winver tonight, and if the build starts 26100, install 26H2 from Windows Update before next Tuesday's final 24H2 patch.

Related: Office 2021 end of support landed the same day, so check whether your copy is still patched

"The home phone has had no dial tone since the broadband engineer came, and Mum's alarm box keeps blinking." That is the landline switch off arriving early. Providers are moving every UK line from copper to Digital Voice, and kit built for copper can fail quietly. Check in this order: the plug, the power, then the provider.

Start at the wall. A BT-style plug or small RJ11 jack means the device leans on copper and is at risk. A wider RJ45 plug means it already uses broadband. A power lead alone usually means a built-in SIM, which the change leaves alone. HomeCareGuardian's August 2026 telecare guide uses the same test.

Why does the landline switch off break working kit?

Digital Voice carries your calls as internet data through the router, so anything that expects the old copper line's signal or its power, such as older burglar alarms and telecare units, can lose its connection without any warning light.

Copper carried a small current of its own, which is why a corded phone worked through a storm. Digital Voice sends the call as data through the router, and the router needs mains power. Uswitch's explainer, updated August 2026, lists burglar alarms, CCTV, card terminals and telecare among affected kit, and confirms full fibre is not needed: ordinary broadband, SOGEA included, carries the calls. So the router is now your phone socket, and its power matters more than its speed (our comparison of Wi-Fi 7 and Wi-Fi 6E home routers covers speed).

The weak link is paperwork, not technology. Providers are meant to find vulnerable customers before moving them, and they miss some, as Ofcom's December 2025 penalty on Virgin Media and an August 2025 Which? survey of telecare firms show. The time figure below is our own count of days to the cutoff.

If you are shopping for a parent, act on the Which? finding: get the seller to confirm in writing that the alarm works on Digital Voice or has its own SIM. The same habit applies to any connected gadget, as our look at what works and what still breaks in Matter smart homes found.

Copper line vs Digital Voice: what changes at home

Digital Voice keeps your number and your handset but moves the dependency from the copper line to your router, so plug type, power and the telecare rules decide whether each device keeps working after the cutoff.

Left column: the question. Middle: how each network handles it. Right: what to do. Rows run from cost to risk.

All ticks and you are done. One cross, usually the power-cut row, means a router battery pack or a mobile kept charged, both far cheaper than a panic engineer visit in the final week.

What happens to my phone in a power cut on Digital Voice?

Your home phone stops working once the router loses power, unless the router has battery backup, and Ofcom only requires providers to offer enough backup for a short spell of emergency calls, not a night without electricity.

The GOV.UK Telecare National Action Plan, published February 2025, says analogue telecare units typically run 12 to 24 hours on their own battery, and alarms without one fail in a power cut outright. But on Digital Voice that battery only counts while the router is alive, so a unit good for a day goes deaf when the hub does. That is our reading of the two rules together, and it puts the backup question on the router.

The plan's Charter says providers will not migrate a telecare user until "a compatible and functioning telecare solution" is confirmed. My view: sound on paper, but only if the provider knows the alarm exists. Tell them yourself (or, more accurately, get whoever pays the bill to), and if brushed off, call Ofcom on 0300 123 3333. Then check any reassuring letter, as you would when verifying Windows 10 ESU enrolment.

• A burglar alarm that dials out over the phone line: ask the installer for an IP or SIM communicator.
• A router on a timer plug or an extension lead that gets switched off at night.
• Sheltered or social housing: the landlord usually owns the alarm, so ask them for the upgrade date.

This weekend, do the plug test on every device, then phone your provider with two questions: your migration date, and whether a telecare alarm is flagged on your account. If the second answer is no, the job is yours.