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The 13 October 2026 Cliff: Everything Microsoft Retires On One Day

Microsoft has stacked an unusual amount of retirement onto a single date. On 13 October 2026 the entire Office 2021 family retires, Office LTSC 2021 reaches end of support, Publisher goes with it, Windows 11 version 24H2 ends servicing for Home and Pro, and the third and final year of Extended Security Updates for Windows Server 2012 runs out. Here is the complete list, taken from Microsoft’s own lifecycle tables, along with one widely repeated claim about that date that is wrong.

By Softwr Editorial, Software research teamPublished 5 min read
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The short answer

  • 13 October 2026 is the single densest retirement date in Microsoft’s 2026 calendar. The Office 2021 family retires, the Office LTSC 2021 family reaches end of support, Windows 11 Home and Pro version 24H2 ends servicing, and Extended Security Updates for Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 end after their third and final year.
  • Publisher ends here. Publisher 2021 retires and Publisher LTSC 2021 reaches end of support on the same date, which is the practical end of the product rather than a version rolling forward.
  • Consumer Windows 10 is NOT part of this date, despite being widely reported as such. What ends on 13 October 2026 is Windows 10 2016 LTSB and Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSB 2016, which are long-term servicing editions used in fixed-function deployments, not the Windows 10 on an ordinary laptop.
  • A second cluster lands on 14 July 2026 and is easy to miss: SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019, Project Server 2016 and 2019, SQL Server 2016, and SQL Server 2014 Extended Security Updates year two all end support that day.
  • Windows Server 2022 does not end support in 2026, it moves from mainstream to extended support on 13 October 2026. Security updates continue at no cost; new features and design changes stop. Those are very different things and are frequently conflated.
  • End of support means no new security updates, no non-security updates, no assisted support and no online technical content updates. For anything internet-facing, that is the date the risk profile changes rather than the date the software stops working.
Contents
  1. 01What actually ends on 13 October 2026
  2. 02The Windows 10 claim that is going around, and why it is wrong
  3. 03The 14 July 2026 cluster, which is quietly bigger for server teams
  4. 04Azure is retiring its own AI services, and that list is long
  5. 05What a sensible response looks like
  6. 06Questions people ask
  7. 07Sources

What actually ends on 13 October 2026

Microsoft publishes its retirements as lifecycle tables rather than as announcements, which is why a date this consequential arrives without a headline. Reading the tables for 2026, one day carries far more than any other.

Product retirements, Modern Policy

The full Office 2021 family retires: Access 2021, Excel 2021, Office 2021, OneNote 2021, Outlook 2021, PowerPoint 2021, Project 2021, Publisher 2021, Visio 2021 and Word 2021.

End of support, Fixed Policy

The Office LTSC 2021 family reaches end of support on the same day: Access LTSC 2021, Excel LTSC 2021, Office LTSC 2021, Office LTSC 2021 for Mac, OneNote LTSC 2021, Outlook LTSC 2021, PowerPoint LTSC 2021, Project 2021 (LTSC), Publisher LTSC 2021, Skype for Business LTSC 2021, Visio LTSC 2021 and Word LTSC 2021.

Alongside them: Windows 10 2016 LTSB, Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSB 2016, and the third year of Extended Security Updates for both Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2.

End of servicing

Windows 11 Home and Pro version 24H2 ends servicing, as does Dynamics 365 Business Central on-premises 2025 release wave 1, version 26.x.

Moving to extended support

Windows Server 2022, Windows Server 2022 Datacenter Azure Edition, Windows Server 2022 Standard, Windows Server IoT 2022 and Office LTSC 2021 for Mac all move from mainstream to extended support.

Microsoft's own definition of what end of support means is worth quoting rather than paraphrasing: upon retirement or end of support, there will be no new security updates, no non-security updates, no free or paid assisted support options, and no online technical content updates.

The Windows 10 claim that is going around, and why it is wrong

A number of secondary write-ups of this date state that Windows 10 reaches end of life on 13 October 2026. That is not what Microsoft's lifecycle table says, and the difference matters to a very large number of people.

What appears in the 2026 table is Windows 10 2016 LTSB and Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSB 2016. LTSB, later renamed LTSC, is the long-term servicing branch: a deliberately frozen edition licensed for fixed-function devices such as medical equipment, industrial controllers, ATMs and point-of-sale terminals. It is not the Windows 10 that shipped on consumer laptops, and organisations running it know they are running it.

If you administer LTSB 2016 devices, this date is real and it is yours. If you are a home or business user on ordinary Windows 10, this particular row is not about you, and an article telling you otherwise has read a product name rather than a product.

We are flagging it because it is a good example of how retirement dates get garbled in transit. The lifecycle table is the authority, it is public, and it is linked in the sources below. When a date matters, read the row rather than the summary of the row.

The 14 July 2026 cluster, which is quietly bigger for server teams

Three months before the October date, a second group ends support, and for anyone running Microsoft server workloads it is arguably the more disruptive of the two.

  • SharePoint Server 2016 and SharePoint Server 2019. Two full generations of on-premises SharePoint, ending on the same day.
  • Project Server 2016 and Project Server 2019. Same pattern.
  • SQL Server 2016, plus SQL Server 2014 Extended Security Updates year two.
  • InfoPath 2013, a product Microsoft stopped developing over a decade ago and which has been kept on life support by the SharePoint forms that depend on it.
  • Dynamics GP 2016 and GP 2016 R2, SharePoint Designer 2013, and Visual Studio 2022 version 17.12 on the LTSC channel.

SharePoint and SQL Server migrations are measured in quarters, not weekends. A July deadline means the planning window is already open rather than approaching.

And the earlier dates worth knowing

Advanced Threat Analytics 1.x, Dynamics CRM 2016 and Visual Studio 2022 version 17.10 LTSC ended on 13 January 2026. SQL Server 2012 Parallel Data Warehouse ended on 31 March 2026. A cluster of Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack components, including App-V 5.0 and 5.1, MBAM 2.5 and UE-V 2.1, ended on 14 April 2026, along with Dynamics NAV 2016 and Dynamics C5 2016.

Azure is retiring its own AI services, and that list is long

Separate from the product lifecycle, Azure runs a rolling retirement schedule, and 2026 includes three AI services being switched off outright rather than superseded.

  • Azure Anomaly Detector, Azure Metrics Advisor and Azure Personalizer all retire on 1 October 2026.
  • Azure API for FHIR and Azure FXT Edge Filer retire on 30 September 2026.
  • Computer Vision API versions 1.0 through 3.1 retire on 13 September 2026.
  • Azure Functions 1.0 support ends 14 September 2026, and the in-process model for .NET apps in Azure Functions ends 10 November 2026.
  • Azure Application Gateway v1 retires 28 April 2026.
  • Azure Maps takes several hits across September: the Gen1 price tier on the 15th, Render V1 on the 17th, Web SDK map controls 1.xx on the 19th, and Web SDK v2 subversions plus the service module on the 30th.
  • Azure Virtual Desktop (Classic) and Container Log V1 both end 30 September 2026.

The three AI service retirements are the ones to look at first, because a retired managed service is not a version upgrade. Anomaly detection, metrics advisory and personalisation each have to be rebuilt on something else, and the something else is a design decision rather than a migration script.

Find replacements by category

Every product in the catalogue is described on the same fields, so like-for-like comparison is possible.

What a sensible response looks like

End of support is not a switch-off. Office 2021 will keep opening documents on 14 October 2026, and Windows Server 2012 will keep serving. What changes is that nobody is fixing it any more.

  1. Separate the internet-facing from the isolated. An unpatched SharePoint Server 2016 reachable from outside is a different category of problem from an unpatched LTSB terminal on an isolated network. Triage on exposure, not on the date.
  2. Check which Office you actually run. Microsoft 365 Apps update continuously and are not affected by the 2021 retirements. Perpetual Office 2021 and Office LTSC 2021 are. A surprising number of organisations do not know which is deployed where.
  3. Treat Publisher as a migration, not an upgrade. There is no Publisher 2024 waiting. Files need to move to something else, and the sooner an inventory of Publisher documents exists the smaller that job is.
  4. Do not confuse extended support with end of support. Windows Server 2022 moving to extended support on 13 October 2026 still receives security updates at no cost. It stops getting features and design changes. No emergency action is required.
  5. Book the SharePoint and SQL work now. July is closer than October and those migrations are the long ones.
  6. Read the lifecycle page for your specific SKU. Editions diverge. The Enterprise and Education version of Windows 11 23H2 ends on 10 November 2026, a month after Home and Pro 24H2 ends. Assuming a shared date across editions is how these get missed.

Questions people ask

Does Windows 10 stop working on 13 October 2026?

No. The entries on Microsoft’s 2026 lifecycle table are Windows 10 2016 LTSB and Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSB 2016, which are long-term servicing editions for fixed-function devices. Ordinary consumer and business Windows 10 is a separate lifecycle entry and is not what this date covers, despite several secondary articles reporting it that way.

Is Microsoft 365 affected by the Office 2021 retirement?

No. Microsoft 365 Apps are continuously updated and are governed separately. The 13 October 2026 date applies to the perpetual Office 2021 family and to the Office LTSC 2021 family. If your organisation buys Office through a Microsoft 365 subscription, this date does not apply to you.

What happens to my files when Publisher retires?

Nothing immediately. The application continues to run and .pub files continue to open in it. What ends is support, updates and any expectation of a successor version. The practical task is inventorying what exists in Publisher format and deciding what it becomes, which is a design and layout migration rather than a file conversion.

What is the difference between retirement, end of support and end of servicing?

Microsoft uses retirement for products under its Modern Policy that are being withdrawn, end of support for products under the Fixed Policy reaching the end of their lifecycle, and end of servicing for a specific version of a product that continues in newer versions. The practical effect on updates is the same in all three cases. The distinction tells you whether there is a newer version to move to.

Can I buy more time on Windows Server 2012?

Not past 13 October 2026. That date is the end of the third year of Extended Security Updates for Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2, and the ESU programme runs for three years. There is no fourth year to purchase.

Sources

Every price, limit and date above was checked against these pages on the day shown. Where a figure has since moved, the vendor’s own page is the authority and this one is a snapshot.

  1. 1Ending Support in 2026 - Microsoft Lifecycle · MicrosoftThe primary source for every date and product name in this article, including the Office 2021 and LTSC 2021 tables, the Windows 10 LTSB entries and the Windows Server 2012 ESU year three date.Checked
  2. 2Product end of support overview: Fixed and Modern Lifecycle policies · MicrosoftDefines retirement, end of support and end of servicing, and what each removes.Checked
  3. 3Azure updates: retirements · Microsoft AzureThe rolling Azure retirement schedule, including Anomaly Detector, Metrics Advisor and Personalizer on 1 October 2026.Checked

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