AFAIK, you can still install versions going back as far as Office 97, and possibly earlier, if you have a system that they're compatible with. That's to be expected, because the Licence agreement provides the licensee with a contractual right to use the product forever. Accordingly, I'd be surprised if MS decided to void those licenses just because it no longer supports the products. Besides, doing so for such old products with such a small user base would cause MS more grief and loss of goodwill than it'd be worth.



Although you can't really "save" the updated state of Office, you can download all the updates, instead of just installing them, so you can redo the installation exercise later on without going through Windows update. And, of course, if you do a complete image backup of your pristine reinstallation once Windows and Office are fully updated, then you can use that image next time to recreate the pristine state in far less time than it takes to go through reinstalling Windows and all the apps & their updates.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

I image both my system and data drives everyday with Macrium Reflect Professional, so I like this solution better.

Glad to know it's possible in theory to download updates manually, save them and re-apply them later, but it seems like a daunting task. You'd have to identify those which are unnecessary because they were superseded by more comprehensive, later updates, you'd have to not miss a single one, apply them in the right order, deal with possible update bugs without MS support, do that with tens of different downloads (maybe hundreds ?)...

Just as you dispelled my paranoia, I found myself between a rock and a hard place again, with ZD Net fearmongering towards Office 2003 diehards as soon as a year ago, and expert users of modern versions spreading Ribbon Hate in a learned discussion that I failed to bookmark. Oh, well.

Thanks again for helping, and best regards to your furry mates.
________

Clairvaux