I've always used '03 for convenience over the years, but Windows loves their forced updates and I'm not sure if '03 will still work when my computer updates to 11 in October this year.

When I Google the question, the AI response is that '03 will still work, it just doesn't have access to updates and some people say it occasionally says something like 'Not Responding.'

My main concern is the risk of losing years of work in the form of my computer no longer being able to open '03 Word files or some kind of corruption happening.

Am I worrying over nothing? Does it still work just fine? Or should I move all my work over to a newer word processor before October's update? I was thinking about LibreOffice (since it's free and similar enough to '03).

Thanks for any help :]

The only thing happening in October is the end of free support for Windows 10. There is no automatic upgrade to Windows 11, so unless you are buying a new computer in October you won't be updating to Windows 11.

You won't be getting any updates now, support for Office 2003 ceased many years ago

Newer versions of Office can still open your old files so you won't lose access to them unless you write over the disk.

I have no idea whether Office 2003 will still install on Windows 11. If you only have basic needs, then I guess LibreOffice may be suitable for you.

Office 2003 (including Word 2003) installs and runs on Windows 11 Professional. (That is what I have.)

That is reassuring! Thank you for letting me know. I know I probably can't hold on to '03 forever but I'm at least grateful I still have the option in the near future.

I've had that version for so long, I haven't even looked at any of the versions that followed it, haha