Will installing Office 2021 on a laptop with Microsoft 365 in order to continue using Publisher be an issue?

Question

I have a Microsoft 365 subscription, but with Publisher support coming to an end, I need to buy Office 2021 to maintain the hundreds of Publisher files I have. Will installing Office 2021 to get Publisher while I have Microsoft 365 installed, create issues? I want to keep Microsoft 365, but I desperately need to be able to access my current Publisher files and create new as necessary.

Answer 1

Dear Mauri Blanding Peaco,

It sounds like you want to keep Microsoft 365 while using Office 2021 for your Publisher file and want to know whether installing it alongside Microsoft 365 will cause any problems.

Yes, installing the full Office 2021 suite beside Microsoft 365 can cause installation, activation, update, or file-association problems. Both normally use Click-to-Run and include overlapping apps, so this is not a reliably supported setup.

Reference: Install and use different versions of Office on the same PC

I recommend trying the options below:

• Do not install the full Office 2021 suite over your current Microsoft 365 installation. If possible, use Publisher 2021 on a separate Windows computer or in a Windows virtual machine. This is the safest way to keep Microsoft 365 fully updated.
• Before October 2026, back up every .pub file and export important finished publications to PDF. The perpetual 2021 version should continue opening and editing Publisher files after October 2026, but it will be unsupported and receive no security updates or fixes.

Hope this could clarify the situation. Thank you so much for your patience and your understanding!