Is Microsoft Office being discontinued? No, only Publisher (October 13, 2026)

What Microsoft actually discontinued

Microsoft announced in 2024 that Publisher would retire on October 13, 2026. On that date, three things happen, all limited to Publisher and none affecting the rest of Office:

• Microsoft 365 subscribers: Publisher is removed from the catalog. The installed app is disabled, cannot be reinstalled, and .pub files no longer open in Publisher on those machines.
• Office 2021 and earlier perpetual owners: Publisher keeps launching and opening .pub files, but Microsoft ends support. No more security updates, bug fixes, or compatibility patches.
• All other Office apps on the same install: unaffected. Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook keep working normally, with the standard update schedule for whichever edition you own.

What stays supported (and for how long)

Source: Microsoft Product Lifecycle documentation, Publisher retirement announcement (2024), Office LTSC 2024 launch materials (October 2024).

Is PowerPoint being discontinued?

No. PowerPoint is not being discontinued, and neither is Word, Excel or Outlook. PowerPoint is in fact the app Microsoft names as the replacement for Publisher's page-layout work, which is the opposite of a retirement signal. It stays on Microsoft 365 with monthly updates, in Office 2021 perpetual until its extended support ends on October 13, 2026, and in Office LTSC 2024 through October 2029. If you saw "PowerPoint discontinued" somewhere, it was almost certainly a headline about Publisher being retired and PowerPoint being recommended in its place.

Is Word being discontinued?

No. Word is the other app Microsoft points to as a Publisher replacement, for text-first documents like letters, reports and simple one-page flyers. It ships in Microsoft 365, in Office 2021 perpetual and in Office LTSC 2024, with support through at least 2029. Nothing about Word changes on October 13, 2026. The same is true of Excel and Outlook.

Why the "all of Office is being discontinued" story spread

The misconception has three real causes stacked on top of each other. If you have read that all of Office is going away, you have probably encountered at least two.

Cause 1: Publisher's retirement got framed as a Microsoft-wide sunset. When Microsoft announced Publisher's end-of-life in 2024, many tech blogs led with headlines like "Microsoft is killing an Office app after 33 years". True but incomplete. A one-app deprecation reads as a Microsoft-wide direction shift, especially to non-technical readers.

Cause 2: Office 2019 reached end of extended support in October 2025. For anyone still on the perpetual Office 2019 edition, the monthly Windows update pop-ups changed tone in mid-2025: "Your version of Office will no longer receive security updates" is easy to read as "Office is going away". It is specific to Office 2019 (the version) and does not apply to Office 2021, Office LTSC 2024, or Microsoft 365.

Cause 3: Microsoft's Copilot / AI push feels like a replacement. Microsoft has been marketing Copilot inside Word, Excel and PowerPoint so aggressively that some users assume the classic apps are being replaced by an AI product. They are not. Copilot is a feature layered on top of the existing Office apps, in the same executable, on the same update schedule.

What actually changes on October 13, 2026

One event, cleanly scoped: Publisher is retired. Everything else on your Office install continues on its usual lifecycle. If you use Publisher today, your file access changes as follows:

• Microsoft 365 subscriber: Publisher disabled. The .pub file will not open in Publisher on that PC. It stays on disk; you need a converter to read it.
• Office 2021 perpetual owner: Publisher keeps opening and saving .pub files, just without security updates. Reasonable to use for 12-24 more months if the machine is well isolated, then convert.
• Office LTSC 2024 (enterprise): Publisher is not included at all. LTSC 2024 was Publisher-free from launch.
• Not a Publisher user: nothing changes for you at all.

If you have a .pub archive, do this before October 13

Only relevant to Publisher users with actual .pub files. Skip this section if you never used Publisher.

The window between now and October 13, 2026 is the last moment to convert your archive with a fully healthy, fully updated Publisher engine on Microsoft's side. Wait past the date and every conversion runs against a degrading environment: no more Publisher bug fixes, no more Windows compatibility patches for it, no more third party tool updates that depend on the format.

The practical move: convert everything to PDF and to PowerPoint in one bulk pass. PDF is the safety net (opens forever, prints identically). PowerPoint is the editable form (imports into Canva, rebuilds in Affinity via .idml, keeps the free-canvas layout that Word cannot hold).

PublisherRescue does this in one operation. Upload a folder, ZIP or drag-and-drop of files. The server pipeline opens each .pub with the native Publisher engine, exports each file at 300 dpi to PDF, and generates an editable .pptx per file with the layout preserved. Free preview per file before you decide to pay.

Read also

• Publisher is being discontinued: the full timeline
• Microsoft Publisher end of life: full guide
• Publisher perpetual license: what still works after October
• Convert Publisher to PowerPoint without losing formatting
• Real Microsoft Publisher alternatives in 2026

Frequently asked questions

Is Microsoft Office being discontinued?

No. Only Publisher is being discontinued on October 13, 2026. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook stay fully supported through 2029+.

Why do people think all of Office is going away?

Three reasons: Publisher's retirement headlines, Office 2019 end-of-support in 2025, and the aggressive Copilot / AI push that reads as a replacement.

What exactly is Microsoft discontinuing in 2026?

One app: Publisher. Removed from Microsoft 365, no more updates for perpetual editions.

Will Word, Excel and PowerPoint keep working after October 2026?

Yes, through 2029+ on Microsoft 365 and Office LTSC 2024. Office 2021 perpetual ends extended support on the same date but the apps keep running.

Is Microsoft 365 being discontinued?

No. Microsoft 365 is Microsoft's flagship and actively growing. Only Publisher is removed from the catalog.

Is PowerPoint being discontinued?

No. PowerPoint is the app Microsoft recommends in place of Publisher. Supported on Microsoft 365 and LTSC 2024 through 2029.

Is Microsoft Word being discontinued?

No. Word stays in Microsoft 365, Office 2021 and LTSC 2024 through 2029. Nothing about Word changes on October 13, 2026.

What should I do about my .pub files?

Convert them to PDF and PowerPoint before October 13, 2026. PublisherRescue does the whole archive in one pass with free preview.