OneNote for Windows 10 support clock counts down

Just over 50 days until Microsoft pulls the plug

OneNote for Windows 10 is on the way out. On October 14, it will reach the end of the road support-wise, and anything left in it will become read-only.

The OneNote brand has become a little fragmented over the years. Since its launch more than 20 years ago, the note-taking application has undergone multiple iterations, evolving from a standalone product to part of Office, and then serving as evidence that Microsoft truly cared about the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) on Windows 10, where a UWP version of OneNote came preinstalled.

Microsoft has been banging on about the newer OneNote on Windows app for a while now, and this week warned that OneNote for Windows 10 would be shuffling off into the sunset alongside support for many versions of Windows 10. As of October 14, there will be only one supported version – OneNote on Windows.

There'll be no Microsoft 365-style support reprieve for OneNote for Windows 10, either. Although some versions of Windows 10 remain supported, with users able to purchase Extended Security Updates (ESU) for the operating system, OneNote for Windows 10 support will really and finally end.

Microsoft said, "We're consolidating our efforts into a single, more powerful OneNote on Windows app.

"This streamlined direction will help us deliver new features faster, ensure long-term support, and provide a foundation for future innovation in OneNote."

The company also threatened that there would be "Copilot-powered note generation" for the note-taking app.

While the impending end of support for OneNote for Windows 10 should not come as too much of a surprise for administrators – the application itself has been displaying a terse message warning that the end was in sight for a while now – the warning that there is less than 60 days of support remaining is a stark one.

Still, it's not as if organizations that use OneNote for Windows 10 had any other issues to worry about on October 14. We're sure administrators will have plenty of bandwidth to deal with users complaining that their notes have suddenly become read-only as they work to ensure any Windows 10 stragglers remain supported. ®