[German]Quickly asked about the status of the switch to the new Outlook app. There is an indication that the last Windows 10 update from October 2024 will carry out a forced update. And there was feedback that the new Outlook app is behaving sluggishly over time (it's fixed now). Microsoft classified the new Outlook as "business-ready" a few weeks ago.
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New Outlook app generally available
There were two events in the last few weeks that I had not covered separately in the blog. On August 1, 2024, Microsoft announced in this Techcommunity post that the new Outlook app for Windows is now available for commercial customers and will receive full support via Microsoft's support channels (including Assisted Support) "immediately" (I came across this here).
And on September 21, 2024, I came across the news on neowin.net that the new email app "Outlook for Windows" was generally available for private use. Microsoft had announced this in the tech community article New Outlook for Windows now available.
The new Outlook for Windows will be available as an app for personal accounts via the Microsoft Store under Windows 11 and in Windows 11 24H2 (Windows Fall Update from September 26). The app is free for Windows users and supports various email accounts and calendars under one app interface. In the long term, the app is intended to replace the classic Outlook from Microsoft Office.
In view of the above announcements, I assumed that "something will happen soon for Windows users". Microsoft wrote that the old mail and calendar app on Windows would be replaced by the new Outlook app.
Trouble and problems foreseeable
Looking back: Microsoft has been in the process of bringing its Outlook app to users as a mail client since the beginning of 2023. Microsoft's communicated approach is to replace the "Windows Mail and Calendar app" included in Windows with the new Outlook for Windows. The new Outlook app comes from the Store and is intended to replace the classic Outlook in the long term (see Road map for new Outlook app; classic Outlook supported up to 2029).
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The app has been causing quite a bit of trouble ever since it was launched. In the blog posts Warning: Microsoft Outlook app breaks (company) security and Beware: New Outlook app transfers access data to Microsoft and Security risk Microsoft Outlook App: Transfers credentials and mails to the cloud, I pointed out that users are relinquishing control.
In corporate environments where only Exchange Online is used, what may still be reasonably regulated by the GDPR is actually a no-go on closer inspection. For corporate environments, the new Outlook app also requires certain licenses. I had referred to this particular experience in the article New Outlook for Windows 11: Adding of business accounts denied due to missing licensing.
The exciting question was then whether the app is really business-ready – which I clearly deny based on my observations (the links at the end of the article lead to the list of horrors). And in the article New Outlook app: "Monitoring and surveillance tool for targeted advertising", I revealed why Microsoft is determined to bring the app to users: Microsoft wants to obtain user data and which it will then share with 772 third-party providers according to the terms and conditions.
There have been repeated waves of updates removing the Mail and Calendar app included in Windows 11 and installing the new Outlook app instead. Now it seems that Windows 10 has also been hit.
Will Windows 10 update KB5044273 force new Outlook?
On October 8, 2024, Microsoft released the cumulative update KB5044273 for Windows 10 22H2 as part of the regular patchday (see Patchday: Windows 10/Server-Updates (October 8, 2024)).
German blog reader Seita noted in this comment that after installing the update, the existing Mail and Calendar app no longer worked for him because it had been replaced by the new Outlook app. If you want to start Mail or Calendar, the new Outlook app appears instead.
Uninstalling the new Outlook app does not help, the reader wrote, as the app is immediately reinstalled when you try to access emails and start the app.
I had referred the reader to this Microsoft support article, saying, that uninstalling the app with a PowerShell command should be enough to prevent the app from being reinstalled. The reader's statement is contrary to what Microsoft promises in the support article (as of August 2024).
I have tried to recreate this on a notebook with Windows 10 22H2 Pro, but cannot observe this because the mail and calendar app is not configured on my computer. So far, the Mail and Calendar app has not been replaced by the new Outlook.
This Microsoft Answers forum post from September 2024 also reports a forced upgrade of the app. The question to the readership: Is this an isolated observation by blog reader Seita, or are there more users who have been force-fed the new Outlook app? And does uninstalling the new Outlook app help to prevent it from being reinstalled?
Personally, I can only recommend not using the Windows Mail and Calendar app or the new Outlook app. I've been using Thunderbird as an open source solution since 2009; I don't use Outlook here, neither as an app nor as a classic version. And I've been able to use the same mail client for 15 years, believe it or not. It's an mail client that simply works.
New Outlook app was slow to respond after a short time
Blog reader Christoph reported that in his company environment, he has noticed that the new Outlook app has been starting more and more slowly and can no longer be closed at all.
Or the app keeps reporting that it wants to be restarted because it is using too many resources. As the webview component consumes a relatively large amount of RAM in these situations, the reader suspected a problem with webview. I then came across a similar complaint on the Patchmanagement.org mailing list.
The whole thing has since been resolved: the Microsoft Cloud had a "hiccup" and affected the new Outlook app. Blog reader Karl Wester-Ebbinghaus provided brief information about this here. The relevant status message from Microsoft was published on Patchmanagement.org.
Some users may encounter performance issues with their Outlook client
ID: MO907654
Issue type: IncidentStatus
Service DegradationImpacted services
Microsoft 365 suite, Exchange OnlineDetails
Title: Some users may encounter performance issues with their Outlook clientUser impact: Users may encounter performance issues with their Outlook client.
More info: Users may notice Outlook using an increased amount of resource utilization, causing the client to freeze or crash.
Current status: We're continuing to analyze data provided by customers experiencing crashes and high memory utilization when using the New Outlook desktop application. Additionally, we're reviewing service telemetry and reproducing the issue internally to isolate the root cause and develop a mitigation plan.
Scope of impact: Impact is specific to some users who are served through the affected infrastructure.
Next update by: Thursday, October 10, 2024, at 2:30 PM UTC
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