Thank you, Macropod. That's quite a relief.

Based on Microsoft statements or past practices, would you say that it will remain so in the future ? That is, is it likely that Microsoft would change activation rules or availability of automatic updates up to the end-of-life date, this time possibly unannounced ?

After all, the product is officially unsupported now, so they could pull this plug as well anytime. I suppose there's no way to "save" the updated state of Office (or the updates themselves) before wiping the disc clean.
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Clairvaux