Recently, Microsoft quietly updated the official download page of the compatibility support package for older versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, announcing that the compatibility installer will be removed in the near future. The compatibility support package is called Office Compatibility Pack , developed with the task of helping users using older versions of Office to open documents created in newer versions of Office , when Microsoft changed the file format from Office 2007 onwards.
Office 2003 and earlier files of Word, Excel, PowerPoint are formatted as DOC, XLS and PPT respectively, then after upgrading to Office 2007 they will be formatted again as DOCX, XLSX and PPTX, so So the Office Compatibility Pack will support users with the ability to read and edit new file formats on older Office versions that are still being used by many people for different reasons.
It seems that after a long period of hesitation, Microsoft has finally decided to stop providing this support package, although the company has not made an official statement, according to the information provided by Microsoft's download page. This decision to stop supply will take effect from next April . And those who have already installed this support package will not receive any further updates or security patches.
In addition, the company will not provide any specific information related to the above decision, and the support package download page will only provide general information about this package. Document KB924074 related to this support package also does not have any detailed information regarding the upcoming support discontinuation period.
It is possible that Microsoft decided based on data related to customers using older versions of Office, the data shows that there are very few customers using this older version of Microsoft Office, so the support package This subsidy will no longer be needed. However, you can still download the Office Compatibility Pack even if Microsoft completely stops providing this support package below.