Sent by DoIT Communications on behalf of DoIT Departmental Support.

As the designated primary contact for your area, please forward this message to all colleagues in your unit. You may be the only individual in your area receiving this message. This information is also available as a KB document at https://kb.wisc.edu/page.php?id=155869.

Dear Departmental Support technical contacts,

We hope you're doing well. You may have heard that Office 2016 and 2019 reached their end of life on October 14, 2025. In response, we need to update devices running older versions of Microsoft Office, Project and Visio.

What should you/end-users do?

In the coming weeks, devices with older software will display a notification via the BigFix Self-Service Application prompting users to start the software removal process. Users can defer these actions and update when it’s convenient to them until November 10. After November 10, the software will be removed automatically.

What to expect

For devices with affected versions of Office…

• The action will close any open Office applications, remove the unsupported version of Office and install a supported version.

• Users may need to activate Office using their netid@wisc.edu following the install.

For devices with affected versions of Project or Visio…

• The action will close any open Office applications and remove the unsupported version of Project or Visio.

• Because these products require buying a software license, the action will not automatically install a supported version of the software.

• Users who require uninterrupted access to Project or Visio are encouraged to purchase an updated license and contact the Contract Partner Help Desk to install the updated version prior to November 10.

• See this KB document for instructions: DoIT Departmental Tech Support - Requesting Access to Licensed Software.

Why are we making this change?

Microsoft ended support for several versions of their Office, Project and Visio software titles on October 14. Because updates will no longer be released, we need to remove or upgrade these applications to supported versions. This change will help maintain security on managed devices.

Questions?

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us through the Departmental Tech Support portal. We appreciate your understanding as we work to maintain the security of managed systems. 

–DoIT Departmental Support