Is planned obsolescence really the reason a favourite old program stops working on a new computer? It’s an easy conclusion to reach, and sometimes it’s even a fair one. But a viewer’s question about running Office 2003 on Windows 11 raises a bigger question worth thinking through: are software companies always being greedy, or are we sometimes expecting more from our tech than is reasonable? This one isn’t a tutorial, and really doesn’t have an enormous practical application. But it’s a conversation about our expectations when it comes to technology and how those expectations affect our interactions with it.
Why Old Software Can’t Keep Up Forever
Microsoft ended support for Office 2003 back in April 2014. Some people still manage to get it running on Windows 11, while others run into crashes, missing features, or an installer that simply refuses to cooperate. Asking whether it will work is completely reasonable. The trickier idea hiding underneath is the assumption that it should work, and that it’s somehow unfair if it doesn’t.
Technology moves quickly largely because capability keeps improving. A modern desktop processor does far more work on the same power than one from a decade ago, and today’s operating systems and software have made similar leaps. That progress comes with a trade-off: the foundations change. The video editing software I use here at tektoc is a good example. After a year of buggy, sluggish updates, a recent PowerDirector 365 release made the program dramatically faster on the very same computer. An improvement like that would be close to impossible if the developers also had to keep it working on Windows 7, XP, or Windows 98. Not to mention the fact that maintaining that kind of backward compatibility would take more time and effort from the developers, likely making the software more expensive.
Think of a house built to 1971 standards, with 2×4 walls, thin insulation, and single-pane windows. It can be lovingly maintained, but it will never be as warm or efficient as a house built today. Old software that still runs on a new system is a welcome bonus, but should not be considered a never-ending promise from the original developer.
Using Windows 7 in 2026 and the “I’ve Never Had a Problem” Trap
Plenty of people are still using Windows 7 in 2026, and some proudly run Windows XP or even Windows 98. That loyalty is admirable, but security is where it gets risky. When Microsoft supports a version of Windows, its most important job is patching security holes as they’re discovered. Once support ends, those patches stop, and any newly found vulnerability stays open for good.
The usual response is, “I’ve never had a problem.” That experience is real, but it’s a sample size of one computer, which says very little about actual risk. The WannaCry ransomware outbreak of May 2017 shows why. It locked files on more than 200,000 computers in roughly 150 countries, yet Microsoft had released a fix for the flaw it exploited two months earlier. According to Kaspersky, more than 98 percent of infected machines were running Windows 7, which was still fully supported at the time. Those computers could have been protected. They simply hadn’t installed the update.
Microsoft even took the rare step of issuing an emergency patch for Windows XP, three years after its support had ended, but that was an exception during a global crisis rather than something to count on. The statistical idea behind all this is the law of large numbers: small samples can mislead, while security researchers looking at millions of machines see risks one person never will.
For clarity; for those still on Windows 10, this isn’t a concern yet. Microsoft’s Extended Security Updates now run through October 2027, and there’s a free way to get them.
Proudly Cheap, But Still Reasonable
Subscriptions deserve plenty of skepticism. Many feel like a way to charge again and again for something that used to be a one-time purchase. Still, even frugality needs some balance. Nobody buys a car expecting never to change the oil or replace the brakes, and no homeowner expects a roof or furnace to last forever. Software that finally stops running after 15 or 20 years may not be a conspiracy by the tech giants. It may simply be the same natural progression we accept everywhere else in life.
That doesn’t mean accepting everything. Prices that creep up year after year, features that quietly disappear, and changes nobody asked for are all worth pushing back on, and passionate advocacy is how products get better. That pushback just carries more weight when it’s reasonable. Expecting good value and years of dependable service is fair. Expecting anything to work forever isn’t. Getting the full use out of your tech is a great goal, but full use doesn’t mean forever use.
Where Do You Draw the Line?
How long should software you paid for keep working, and should the same rules apply to hardware? Watch the full video above, then share your take in the YouTube comments. Viewer comments are where this whole conversation started.
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