UPDATE: Office 2007 is now out of support and should be upgraded to Office 2019 or Office 365. LibreOffice is a free opensource alternative.

Office 2007 was released on the 10th of January 2007.  This year sees Office 2007 reaching its 10th anniversary. As with most Microsoft products, 10 years will see the end of extended support.

Office 2007 was the first to take on the modern look. Microsoft replaced the traditional menu with the Office button and replaced the traditional menu drop-downs with the ribbon. The ribbon replaces the text with icons. While the office button didn’t make it to the next version, the ribbon has stayed.

Unsupported software misses important software upgrades. These upgrades patch critical vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities, if left unpatched, can potentially be exploited by an attacker. Depending on the type of vulnerability, the attacker may be able to access your data remotely.

Extended support for Office 2007 will end on the 10th of October 2017. It is recommended to upgrade to a newer version of Office sooner rather than later.

Extended support for Windows Vista will also end this year. The official date being the 11th April 2017.