So I’ve been getting these scary messages on how “Support has ended for Office!!!” and Your Computer Will Blow up If You Don’t Give Us $10 a Month FOREVER!!!.
So is there any actual risk to continuing to use Office 2010, considering that it meets my needs for light home use. Can I install it on my new computer even? Is there a way to permanently make the nag messages go away? If they were willing to sell me a new version for $150 for three keys like they did before I wouldn’t have a problem with upgrading, but $150 per key for my three computers is expensive and I refuse to rent software rather than owning it.
My understanding is that the main risk would be opening up some Microsoft Office file from elsewhere that has some malware in it.
You can mitigate this by making sure macros are turned off by default, and never turning them on.
I’ve been looking for any other risks, but, so far, all the sources I normally go to just say “security risk” without specifying what that risk is. I’ll try asking on a site that doesn’t just go by what Microsoft says.
Not really. I suppose it is possible that some hacker might still find a zero day for some arcane exploit but probably not. They are just trying to scare you to get your money. You can certainly install it on a new computer if it complies with whatever licensing terms are in the version you bought.
The greater risk is one of technical obsolescence, but if you are just using it for light home use you won’t notice the difference. I am on Office 365 and sent a file this week to someone at work. The file has new functions that are not supported in her older version so we had to get her upgraded. But if you are not collaborating with anyone else with your files you won’t care.
I have used every version of Excel since maybe 92 and the really big change was in 2007. Once you get past that hump there is not much impetus to keep upgrading.
This is good advice. It has been true since long before Excel 2010 and upgrading 2010 to a newer version won’t help. So yes, be wary of an incoming file with macros (I got a Russian malware trojan in a Word file a few months ago when someone hacked into the email at a winery that sends me newsletters) regardless of your Excel version.
I was about to ask over at AskWoody.com, but I saw that one of main tech guys over there is keeping with Office 2010 for their own personal use. And they were the ones pushing people off of Windows 7, so I think it’s probably fine.
I still will ask exactly what the risks are, just for the information, but I would not worry about it in the meantime. I’ll admit, I’ve long used old Office versions–I still have a copy of Office 97 just for avoiding compatibility issues with older files.
I don’t have any reason to convince you otherwise but my wife got a subscription to Office 365 Family for $100 a year and it includes licensing for family members (I don’t remember the limit), and each person can install it on all their devices (computers and mobile devices). Just for me I have it installed on a desktop, laptop, iPad, Android tablet, and Android phone. You automatically get all functional updates, like new worksheet functions and other features. It’s like getting continuous upgrades. It includes Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Outlook, and it also includes 1TB of OneDrive space. It’s a much better deal than the old way.
It’s still more than paying $0 to stay with Excel 2010.