Office 2000 Heads Up!

Microsoft Office 2000 is coming to the end of the extended support period very soon, 14th July 2009 to be precise. On this date Microsoft officially retire this version and no longer provide security updates to keep users safe from the threats exploiting security vulnerabilities in Office 2000.

To quote Microsoft from their Office Lifecycle webpage:

Office 2000 – Microsoft will continue to offer mainstream support for Office 2000 through June 30, 2004. The Office 2000 extended support period will last from July 1, 2004 through July 14, 2009. The latest Office 2000 service pack is required for hotfix support.

What does this mean for user of this version of Office? Well you need to plan to upgrade to a more recent version of Office or uninstall it by or on the 14th July 2009. More recent versions of Office include Office XP, Office 2003 and Office 2007.

Alternatively, uninstall Office 2000 and try Open Office, which is free to use both for commercial and non-commercial use. It is pretty good for people with simple needs, but there are still compatibility issues with swapping the files with users of Office!

Continuing to use Office 2000 after the end of life date will see your computer becoming more and more insecure to the bad guys as time passes! Doing nothing isn’t an option unless you are happy for your system to be compromised.

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