People are furious that Microsoft is killing off Publisher

As October 2026 nears, Publisher users slam Microsoft over access loss and messy workarounds, reigniting frustration over its upcoming app retirement.

Microsoft Publisher logo with a cemetery on the background

Back in February 2024, Microsoft announced that it was killing off Publisher and removing it from Microsoft 365. For those unaware, this utility is typically used to create professionally branded templates, envelops, and labels, but Redmond stated that customers should start using PowerPoint, Designer, and Word for these purposes instead. Now, ahead of the retirement deadline of October 2026, users have started seeing reminder notifications, and they aren't happy.

A notification with the following wording has started appearing for Publisher customers:

Publisher is retiring

Beginning October 2026, Microsoft Publisher will no longer be supported, and you won't be able to access Publisher or open Publisher files.

Neowin has noticed that in several Facebook groups, hundreds of people are publicly voicing their displeasure at this move. Some comments from users are highlighted below:

It won’t let you open files? That’s bull****.
F**k, I use publisher for all of our printed handouts. Trying to make a ledger sized PowerPoint is going to be a nightmare. Also publisher has so many amazing alignment/design tools that PowerPoint just doesn't.
This is why cloud based software sucks.
It's the only piece of software Microsoft didn't ruin with bad UI, so obviously they had to dump it.
And there goes my M365 subscription, because I really only use it for publisher projects. I do IT support at a library and use Publisher for a lot of our handouts and such.
Come on now!!! Why, just why?

Of course, there are also some who claim that this is an understandable decision since Publisher is a fairly legacy tool in terms of functionality, and that Microsoft certainly looked at usage metrics before deciding that it wasn't worth the investment.

That said, Publisher users are still not happy that they won't even be able to open their existing Publisher files. Indeed, Microsoft has highlighted considerably convoluted ways to export Publisher content and then re-open it in Word, PowerPoint, and Designer. Notably, this retirement echoes the feelings behind the retirement of WordPad, where Microsoft eventually began integrating the same functionalities in Notepad.