Upgrade from Office 2010 to 2019

David, I am cautious with my words because I could not say if you do a particular thing nothing could ever go wrong. Having said that I really do not see how anything will go wrong if you install Office 2021 when you have Office 2010 installed. And, there is no reason thereafter for you to open Office 2010 to do whatever. The only thing you should not do is open Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2021 at the same time, I think that is obvious. See below I have just opened Word 2003, while my Word 2021 is open. Installing Office 2021 will not uninstall Office 2010. If you did uninstall Office it will not remove your templates documents etc, they are stored on your computer. Microsoft Office is only a tool to open and work with them. By the way I have hundreds of Word documents on my computer created by Office 2003.

If you are still worried create a system restore point and before you do anything that way you can go back to where you were before you did whatever. It does not change any of your files.

My Office 2019 and 2013 are on my other computer. I have been changing them backward and forward so it gets a bit complicated. My other computer is the oldest that I have had 2019. I do have another XP Windows computer computer that I started with 2003 then 2013. Then I bought my other computer installed both 2003 and 2013. Then bought this computer....

Ron, I really appreciate your help. As you are aware, Microsoft, like most software companies want to migrate to a subscription only service because that's a much more profitable business model. Pain in the butt for users, but what are you going to do if there's no legitimate competition for their service. So getting on the latest non-subscription version makes the most sense.

I know you didn't suggest running two different versions of Office at the same time. I was only pointing out that Microsoft said it could be done, implying that 2021 could be installed before removing 2010.

My "word configuration files" comment/question was: If I have to uninstall 2010 first I am assuming that the uninstall would remove all traces of Office 2010 including Word and all it's standard "configuration" files like normal.dotm,etc. thus removing my custom templates, styles, etc. before installing 2021 thus losing them. Maybe the uninstall would leave them?? They're stored in ...AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates

I think as of now, based on your help, I will leave 2010 installed and install 2021 and go from there. That could take me in a couple of directions. The 2021 install might uninstall 2010 as it installs, or if there are problems I will have to uninstall 2010 before the 2021 install. Or 2021 installs ok and I then have to remove 2010. Any thoughts here?

I have successfully installed Office 2010 on three machines from one of the online companies over several years (that I have had good success with) with no problems although there were no possible end of life issues at the time. I just installed 2021 on my daughters new laptop from the same online company, although as you pointed out I had to uninstall the Office 365 Trial first. I did have some problems activating the license key but was able to activate through a MS site, a bit of a pain but it did work.

Thanks David, the reason that I purchased Office 20021, is because Microsoft is intent on ending the provision of any future version of Office. I am not sure how it is going to work. Microsoft no longer sells Office 2019. You need to be very careful purchasing Office online, particularly those at knockdown prices. Try a bit of Googling re end of Microsoft Office. Not everything is correct so... See: Microsoft Office is changing to Microsoft 365 and Frequently asked Questions

Microsoft's articles can be very misleading and contradictory. Probably the worst misleading and contradictory information provided by Microsoft is the fact that in articles it referred to the Key to redeem Office as the Product Key and at the same time referred to the licence key also as the Product Key. The two keys have two different functions. Microsoft has now removed the licence Product Key from Office 2019 and 2021, which has helped to deal with some of the confusion, but how can you rely on Microsoft articles.

Microsoft at the present time is changing articles referring to Microsoft Office 2013/2016/2019/2021 to only refer to Microsoft 365 (other than where at the top of the article it refers to perpetual versions, that the article was originally aimed at.

Re: Install and use different versions of Office on the same PC - Microsoft Support "If you have a Microsoft 365 subscription or non-subscription version such as Office Home and Business 2021, 2019, 2016 or 2013, in most cases you can't run these versions together on the same computer." That means you cannot run Microsoft 365 with the perpetual versions of Office, it does not mean you cannot install perpetual versions side by side. Certainly you cannot run two versions of Outlook. Yes, you should install the earlier version first, that make absolute sense. I have never suggested that running two versions of Office at the same time.

It may be where you see or where other people get mixed up, is that on new computers it is very advisable to uninstall the trial version of Microsoft 365, which is installed on all new computers. It tries to install itself, so yes you should uninstall it before you do anything else, unless of course you want to try Microsoft 365. What Microsoft does not make clear is that if you do not cancel the subscription well before the 30 day trial period Microsoft will take a payment without any notice on expiry of the subscription. This forum is full of people who have suffered from this mistake.

I am not sure what is meant by "Word configuration files because the uninstall would delete them."? Have look at Rohn's contribution here: Word 2016 - User file and customization file locations - Microsoft Community As far as I am aware installing a newer version of Office will not delete anything. However, such things such as Office Styles will not be carried over.

You should backup your outlook pst files and your word files as a matter of course. Yes the main pst file has everything, that is calendar etc. See: Back up your email - Microsoft Support However, the newer version of Office 2019/2021 will pick them up and they should be working.

Thanks Ron. I too went from Office 2003 to 2007 and then 2010. I've had no problems with 2010 and could keep using it but I installed Office 2021 on my daughters laptop and will inevitably be supporting her so I thought I'd go ahead and upgrade. I don't remember why I had decided to go with 2019 instead of 2021 but on second thought I think I'll go to 2021 rather than 2019. Any thoughts there since you've done both?

Microsoft's support site says that the upgrade from a pre-existing Office version should uninstall the previous version, but if there are problems with the install you may have to uninstall the previous version first before proceeding. Somewhat contradictary to the previous, Microsoft also says that the versions may also run side by side, although they might give you a choice during the new install.

Some posts elsewhere have been adamant that the previous version would have to be completely uninstalled before installing the new version. My concern was that if I had to uninstall 2010 first, I would lose my Word configuration files because the uninstall would delete them. I'm not concerned about data files (.docx, etc.) just standard config files like normal.dotm that store template and style info and would be installed with the new install.

I am not too concerned about Outlook. Pretty easy to back up my pst file and point to it after the install. It pretty much contains everything like rules, calendars, etc. I'm pretty sure it also contains all the configuration changes made to Outlook like font sizes, ribbon changes, added views, etc. I'd back up the rules just to be on the safe side.

Anyway, I would appreciate any thoughts as to 2019 vs 2021 and any possible things to look out for or if I've missed anything.

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After further research, it is recommended to completely uninstall Office 2010 before installing Office 2019 and I have absolutely no need for both. (Note that Microsoft says the Office 2010 and 2019 can coexist which would raise serious doubt that the 2019 install would use the 2010 preferences) With Outlook it is mainly backing up the pst file and pointing to it when running Outlook 2019 for the 1st time.

However, I do have custom Templates and Styles in Word 2010. I believe they are stored in the normal.dotm file but I don't think it would work to back up the 2010 version and overwrite the 2019 version. So I'm not quite sure what to do.