Microsoft sets a cutoff date for free Office app viewers

From ComputerWorld: Microsoft is warning customers that it will retire several Office application viewers in little more than four months, shutting off the spigot to the free document readers used by those without the productivity suite.

"The Excel Viewer, PowerPoint Viewer, PowerPoint 2007 Viewer and the Office Compatibility Pack, will be retired in April 2018," said a post to a company blog. "At that time, they will no longer be available for download and will no longer receive security updates."

The announcement followed one a year ago, when the firm said it would put the Word Viewer to pasture in November 2017. That hasn't happened yet; the Word Viewer was still available as of Monday.

Along with the also-free Office Compatibility Pack - which will be chopped next April, too - the viewers let people not equipped with an actual Office bundle to open, view and read, and print Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint decks and Word documents. The idea was to allow collaboration with as large a workplace population as possible.

Microsoft launched the viewer concept at the end of the 20th century, but essentially halted development with the versions matching Office 2007. They have been patched against security vulnerabilities since then, however. The viewers were made unnecessary for many by the introduction in 2010 of Office Online, and the mobile versions of Office's applications, which superseded that initial effort.

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