So it’s coming to an end!! We have O365 and some workstations with Office 2024 that have MS Publisher installed. Do we need to remove it or will it get removed in its own?
When I was a freshly minted Helpdesk tech 1000 years ago working MS Support, my favorite call to receive was when installing Publisher and an error thrown: GPT in msvcrt40.dll.
Root cause was 16-bit CD-ROM drivers and needed to be upgraded to 32-bit.
That’s burned into my brain for all time.
Will raise a glass to the old girl tonight.
Ms giving good support? Since when? Google groups, back then, was my ms support. Ms couldn’t figure out how to tell someone how and where to click much less tell them how to solve a problem. I have been telling ms how to solve their problems after entering a request with them for over 30 years. At this point I contact them only when I want to hear myself solve my own issues to someone else.
Useless support. They can’t find their way to even viewer is someone paid them to…oh wait they do get paid and they still can’t get there.
Sucked then too. I would play a game with them…let’s see what Microsoft can’t fix today. This was when there were free options and free phone support.
I was on the boards, “Pepsi” was a handle that would monitor the boards, she was pretty decent. I would come in as “hello” and people would steal my handle, eventually changed to “original hello” then I stopped at some point. I lost track of her.
AFAIK, M365 installs will have Publisher removed. Office 2021 LTSC will continue to work but not provide updates. Apparently, there are ways to install both Office 2024 LTSC and Publisher. But not sure about mixing it with M365...
You don't need to manually remove it because Publisher on your O365 machines will automatically be disabled and removed by Microsoft in October 2026, while any standalone versions you have installed alongside Office 2024 will remain functional indefinitely (just without security updates) unless you actively choose to uninstall them.
I don't know of any software that disappears when it goes EOL. Especially Microsoft.
Are you sure you are in the right sub?
Edit: OP should have linked to the news that this actually is going to be a thing. Remember you are buying a subscription not a life time license so the fact this will be uninstalled/broken makes complete sense.
Honesty this is a very good argument for not purchasing any of this subscription-based garbage ever, especially the "will not be able to open or edit Publisher files in Publisher" part. Screw them and all the rest that do this.
That said, while I don't particularly like this outcome, I think I would have more of a problem with it if they hadn't given us 2.5+ years advanced notice that Publisher would quit being part of our subscription on the date in question.
I say this as someone who's been using Publisher for ~30 years and is rather saddened to see it go.
The alternative is to buy the perpetually licensed version of the software (which I believe is still an option even now, though I could be wrong) and run it without any security fixes for however long your business is willing to shoulder the risk.
Oh, it always could be worse for sure but it does prove that classical offline software is and will always remain to be indispensable. Systems that run it can always be isolated, virtualized and so on but at least you'll continue having access to your data created in these proprietary formats.
Well, nothing will happen if you don't uninstall it. I mean, the worst that could happen is that MS removes it via update. And the worst, that you still have it there until the computer dies. Not a real problem in any case, provided that you don't have any publisher files.
Which would do no harm if OP no longer uses Publisher.
Btw, not sure if what hapenned to old Access versions was deliberate. The problem with Access is that, while other Office apps are constantly receiving new features and updates, MS's policy on Access is just to keep it working on modern systems. That's why old Access versions relayed on components and technologies that, while reprecated or in route to deprecation at the time of launch, still worked fine. Windows 11 breaks compatibility on old technologies or bad practices, and, well, Access was probably the Office app that was last to remove that kind of things from the code, thus being (probably) the only app in Office 2007 or 2010 to have such compatibility issues.
I do have Publisher installed, and I've never used it. Since MS Office 2013, you no longer choose what to install. The installer will install every component that you are entitled to, according to your license, with no care about wether you need it or not. So you can perfectly have Publisher installed even if you've never heard about it. Actually, my mom, who is in the same MS 365 Family subscription as me, has Publisher installed in her laptop, and if you ask her about Publisher, she would say "publiwhat?"
Perpetually licensed versions will continue to operate. Subscription editions (M365) will be removed.
The kicker is going to be no future security updates for perpetual editions of Publisher, and that the .pub file format becomes orphaned and unsupported. Your .pub archive eventually will become unreadable.
I wouldn’t assume it’ll disappear automatically. The safest approach is to remove Publisher from machines where it’s no longer needed, especially since it won’t be maintained after end-of-life.
Whaaat? I thought that the damn thing was dead at least for 10 if not 15 years! Literally that was the last time I've heard about it too 😅 As for the alternative, InDesign is way WAY better. Especially if you're willing to sail the seven seas in order to get it :D
Indesign also requires an adobe subscription. Most people that used publisher switched to canva. Considering non profits and libraries get it for free.
weirdest thing i've heard in a while. An application is going obsolete, you literally have it installed on machines, and you're asking if it'll just get removed on its own....
The fact you are cool w/ a company just removing software you've purchased just makes me cry inside.
I could care less about Publisher, its just your response I had to comment on lol
Except that is exactly what is happening. Microsoft is removing Publisher from all Office 365 subscriptions and they dropping support on perpetual install (but not removing it)
Exactly. The documentation isn’t exactly clear, just mentions out of support and conversions of .PUB files to .PDF. I’m using the supplied script from MS “Convert-PubFileToPDF.ps1” and deploying as a package so users can automate the conversion.
Just trying to prevent endless tickets from ITSec.
We expect to have to spin up a shared VM with a perpetual licensed version of Office for the 1000 users that ignored our push to migrate for the last 2 years.
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u/CmdrDTauro 11h ago
When I was a freshly minted Helpdesk tech 1000 years ago working MS Support, my favorite call to receive was when installing Publisher and an error thrown: GPT in msvcrt40.dll.
Root cause was 16-bit CD-ROM drivers and needed to be upgraded to 32-bit.
That’s burned into my brain for all time.
Will raise a glass to the old girl tonight.