Microsoft has revealed the forthcoming Office 2019 release will only run on Windows 10 devices.
In a blog post on Thursday, Microsoft said the next-gen productivity suite will not be compatible on machines running Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.
That’s despite Microsoft offering extended support for the two operating systems until 2020 and 2023 respectively.
Considering many PC users remain reluctant to upgrade to Windows 10 — despite Microsoft’s best efforts — this news will be a blow to those banking on grabbing the new version of Office.
According to Statcounter, Windows 10 and Windows 7 market shares are virtually neck-and-neck.
The analyst firm reports Windows 10 (42.78%) has leapt above its predecessor (41.86%) for the first time this week.
Related: Windows 10 review
Microsoft says Office 2019, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, and Skype for Business, will still arrive in the second half of 2018.
Microsoft says previews will be available sometime between April and the end of June.
The firm also says Office 2019 will be fully supported for five years, as well as approximately two years of extended support.
This is in line with the support period Microsoft offered for Office 2016, the last major version of the suite.
Microsoft announced Office 2019 at the Ignite expo last September, without really confirming any details.
Today’s blog post doesn’t really expand upon that in terms of new features, but we’ll probably see all of the consumer facing stuff at Microsoft Build in May.
Come to think of it, that’s probably when the first previews will start rolling out to Windows Insiders.
Will Office 2019 finally push you to update to Windows 10? Drop us a line @TrustedReviews on Twitter.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
