OneNote 2016 Discontinued

As Microsoft announced in a blog post, the Office 2019 release, being launched later this year, will no longer include a OneNote Win32 application. Instead, only the Windows 10 integrated UWP version will be continued.

According to Microsoft, the Windows 10 version already has improved performance and reliability, is updated more frequently and is provided with new functions. In contrast to OneNote 2016, the Windows 10 version also has a new synchronization engine, which is already used in the web application, and in the apps for iOS and Android.

In the same blog post, the software company recommends its users to quickly switch to OneNote for Windows 10. Indeed, the Windows 10 release has not yet reached the full capabilities of the Win32 application, but features are being continually adopted from OneNote 2016; over 100 functions in the last year and a half. For the coming weeks, the introduction of the tags known from OneNote 2016 as well as an improved integration of Office documents is announced.

If users do not want to, or are not allowed, to sync OneNote to a Microsoft cloud, they may continue to use OneNote 2016. OneNote 2016 becomes an optional component of Office 2019 and Office 365 and can be installed later, but no new features will be integrated. For the duration of the Office 2016 support lifecycle, OneNote 2016 will be in mainstream support through October 2020 and in extended support until October 2025, bug fixes and security updates will still be available in this period.

Source: Microsoft