Document access after upgrade

Anonymous
2025-06-01T13:40:36+00:00

I’ve bought a new laptop as my current one can’t upgrade to Windows 11. So need to upgrade Office as the 2016 version will no longer be supported either. Should I buy the 21 or 24 version? Don’t need any fancy gimmicks just basic typing plus the use of Excel.

Will my Word (& Excel) 2016 documents saved in Windows 10 be able to be accessed in a newer Office version on Windows 11?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Stefan Blom 354.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2025-06-01T17:08:19+00:00

If you want a one-time payment license (not a subscription), Microsoft Office Home 2024 is a good choice, as Dave says. It is the cheapest one-time payment license.

However, note that Office Home does not include the classic Outlook. See https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/p/office-home-2024/cfq7ttc0pqvj.

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If having Outlook matters to you, you will need to get Office Home & Business 2024 instead; for more, have look at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/p/office-home-business-2024/cfq7ttc0pbm7.

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  1. DaveM121 939.5K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2025-06-01T14:13:42+00:00

    Hi, I am Dave, I will help you with this.

    If your store your files on your PC and you perform the upgrade to Windows 11 without re-installing Windows, then your files, settings and installed software will not be affected by the update.

    Please provide full details on your intended method to upgrade Windows 10 to 11 and Office on your PC.

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-06-01T14:40:39+00:00

    I’ve bought a new laptop as my current one can’t upgrade to Windows 11. So need to upgrade Office as the 2016 version will no longer be supported either. Should I buy the 21 or 24 version? Don’t need any fancy gimmicks just basic typing plus the use of Excel.

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  3. DaveM121 939.5K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2025-06-01T14:45:24+00:00

    Thank you for that information.

    In that case, it would be best to purchase the Office Home 2024 version, that contains, Word, Excel, PowerPoint.

    With regards to your files, if you have purchased a new PC, do you use OneDrive to sync online and if so, were your files automatically synced to your new PC>

    If not, you will need to use a USB flash drive to copy over your files from the old PC to the new PC.

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-06-01T14:58:58+00:00

    Thank you very much Dave, your answers have helped me immensely🙂

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