Microsoft recently released their latest operating system, Windows 11, we’ve been answering some of the most frequently asked questions around Windows 11, helping you to decide whether or not you should make the jump and upgrade to the latest OS. In this blog post, we’ll be discussing the Microsoft Office Suite its availability and its compatibility in Windows 11.
As with all Windows operating system upgrades, the Microsoft Office Suite does not come readily available for use on the first installation. This means you’ll have to pay for a Microsoft Office Subscription first – this is something that we can help with.
However, if you do have an existing subscription to Microsoft 365, then you’re pretty much good to go. All you need to do is to install the Office suite after upgrading to Windows 11.
Will your version of Microsoft Office work on Windows 11?
It really depends. Microsoft announced that some versions of the Microsoft Office Suite will not be supported in Windows 11. These versions include any versions of the Office Suite released on or before 2013, for example, Office 2010 and Office 2007.
What you have to bear in mind here is that unsupported doesn’t mean that these versions of the Office Suite will not work. However, what it does mean is that Microsoft doesn’t recommend it and they won’t support you if you try to install these versions of Office Suite on a Windows 11 enrolled device and you’ll most likely be making yourself vulnerable to security risks.
How to reliably run older Office on Windows 11 or 10?
The most reliable way to run old Office releases on modern Windows is by using a virtual machine. This technique is possible in Windows 10 or 11 using Hyper/V (however, this is not available in Windows Home), VMware Workstation or other virtual machine products.
This works because virtual machines can run older versions of Windows (Windows 8.1, 7 or earlier) that are fully compatible with the Office release that you wish to use.
Additionally, virtual machines are also the best and most recommended way to run multiple versions of Office on one computer, especially as Microsoft no longer supports installing two versions of Office on one computer.
Summary
To summarise, if you’re using a version of the Office Suite released in 2013 or before, then it’s not likely that you’ll be able to continue using this following an upgrade to Windows 11.
With that in mind, if your version of Office is not supported by Windows 11 and you’d like to upgrade to the latest version, why not contact our team who can assist you. Whether that’s setting you up with Office365 where you have access to the latest software when it’s released or getting you set up with a virtual machine – we’re here to help.