What’s being axed in 2026
Is your old tech living on borrowed time? Jonathan Parkyn reveals what’s destined for the digital scrapheap in the year ahead
Switch to Affinity’s free Publisher when Microsoft scraps its tool of the same name
Every year, tech companies bombard us with shiny, new products, while quietly consigning older devices, software and services to the scrapheap. Some are formally retired, following a long and distinguished product lifecycle. Some are replaced or absorbed into newer products. And others are inexplicably abandoned, leaving users scrambling to find a replacement.
To help you plan ahead, here we reveal the tools, products and services that are destined – or highly likely – to stop working over the next 12 months.
What will
definltely
stop working Office 2021 and Microsoft Publisher
Microsoft routinely retires older versions of Office when they reach the end of their product lifecycle – October 2026 will see the curtain fall on Office 2021, for example. What’s different is that this year, Microsoft is killing off one of Office’s long-standing components, Publisher, altogether.
From 13 October, Microsoft 365 subscribers will no longer be able to open or edit Publisher files, and the app will disappear from the 365 suite entirely. The last perpetual (non-subscription) version of Publisher came with Office 2021. So, if you own this (or an earlier) version, you’ll still be able to run it after October, but you’ll be doing so without security fixes, leaving you vulnerable to malware.