I actually hate the new Outlook for Windows

[Windows Central]

I'm not waiting any longer for a "final build" to share my thoughts on this app. In short, it's terrible. I hate it, and I want the old Mail & Calendar back.

I actually hate the new Outlook for Windows : Read more

 

[i-am-andrew]

Thanks Zac for this excellent article. So glad I'm not the only one that finds new Outlook so bad. Especially the utterly broken email desktop notifications which I actually raised with Microsoft via their feedback in the app, including sending them a video of the delayed opening of the email in a separate window etc making it an incredibly frustrating experience. Essentially their response was this is expected behaviour by 'design' which is ridiculous.

 

[DontBeEvil10]

But but you were so excited about the new "web tech based" outlook, when everyone else was trying to tell you how inferior to Mail it is.

 

[Ren]

Jumped in here to add my voice in support for all this. Hated it since I first tried it out, ages ago - and not just this one, but everything else they're replacing with web apps. Now I can't even use the old Mail/Calendar anymore. And have you tried the new Weather app? Even worse, for all the same reasons. MS is trying so hard to make Windows as a pseudo ChromeOS clone, it's kinda insane.

Re: performance btw - the whole shtick is MS pushing its advertising even more on the user. Plastered in both Outlook and Weather, and I imagine it's going to be everywhere else as well. Of course that's gonna bring performance down even more.
Other than that, I've never understood this mania with web apps anyway. From what I've seen, they're the same as the websites... in which case I might as well just open those from the browser, like I've been doing all my life.

 

[Jay Tee]

Yeah, the "New Outlook" is absolute ****. Same thing on macOS -- the new version lacks several key features the old one had (most egregious to me is the lack of complete support for local folders, which I absolutely cannot do without).

As far as email goes, Wino Mail is the best replacement I've found -- it's not yet the most full-featured, but it's a native Windows app that looks and acts the way a native Windows app should. The author is aiming to make a replacement that's close to Mail and Calendar and it's under continuous development. It doesn't have calendar functionality yet, but it's planned.

 

[Jack Pipsam]

The death of default native offline apps in Windows is depressing. Web apps aren't good replacement. There are times and places where PWA can be great, there is no doubt. But on the whole, many programs (not just Microsoft ones) have become more bloated as a result of being a glorified browser.

As an out of box experience, Windows is just getting worse. You have the forced online/account activation for Windows 11 (workarounds being a thing for those in the know doesn't help the average consumer), the removal of an included Rich Text Editor (WordPad) and default apps becoming clunky Web Apps with a tacked-on Copilot to further drag them down. Edge forcing itself full-screen anytime it wants to tell you about the fact you can pin tabs the sidebar etc etc.

Thankfully there are always many other options out there, such as Thunderbird, which has recently received a visual overhaul and is getting a renewed focus. But there was a straight forward simplicity to the Windows 10 Mail app, as flawed and basic as it was, that will be missed. It's a shame they didn't work on refining that, instead of being lazy.

I am of the belief that default apps are important. Apart from setting the tone of the OS, it is what many consumers will use and won't consider switching to another program. Windows is heading in the wrong direction with this web-app future. Turning Windows into Chrome is just a fall from grace.

 

[simonmann]

"I actually hate the new Outlook for Windows" translation: 'I can't handle change'

 

[Paul L]

I wholeheartedly agree with the article; I couldn’t adapt to the interface of this new web email client from Outlook. I am compelled to continue using the Outlook from the Office suíte!

 

[DontBeEvil10]

"I actually hate the new Outlook for Windows" translation: 'I can't handle change'

you basically didn't care to read why anyone objectively is complaining ... try again.

 

[Jeffery L]

Totally agree Zac. Outlook for Windows is a work in progress. The name that is presented in Windows "Outlook (new)" is dumb. I have to tell my wife, don't click "Outlook", click "Outlook (new)"! Performance is a real drag. The old Mail & Calendar opened in sub-second time with current mail already received. Outlook (new) takes around 5-10 seconds to finally see your latest mail. My biggest complaint is the calendar doesn't work offline and month does not scroll to current week when opened. I will continue to use it. I believe it will get better with time.

 

[Mallandyrr]

I have to agree completely with this article. I even go so far as to tell them in the feedback when refusing to use the new app to” LEAVE MY DAMN EMAIL APP ALONE “

 

[spicypadthai]

I haven't been able to fully evaluate it yet since it still doesn't support on-prem Exchange accounts, which is odd, to say the least.

 

[Kiaser]

I'm not waiting any longer for a "final build" to share my thoughts on this app. In short, it's terrible. I hate it, and I want the old Mail & Calendar back.

I actually hate the new Outlook for Windows : Read more

You missed the single biggest issue with "New Outlook". It's breaking the law. You went thorough all this to write an article about why you like it and didn't know that?

If you enter email credentials into New Outlook, for ANY email server around the world (on-premise Exchange, Yahoo, Hotmail, Google, etc), it's not that it uses that information to access the email server and being the data to your app.

Nope, instead it grabs the credentials, and downloads your email data to the central Microsoft 365 servers, and your New Outlook is nothing but a portal to view the data at Microsoft 365 servers.

Don't believe me? Setup a on-premise Exchange server behind a firewall, use New Outlook to access it, then Uninstaller New Outlook completely. Now go check your firewall logs, you'll see Redmond and other Microsoft 365 data center IPs constantly accessing your email data, copying it to their servers and keeping it despite you no longer using New Outlook.

Microsoft is breaking every security law in existence by doing this, HIPAA, SARBOX, etc. They are keeping your logins to your email services that are NOT Microsoft 365, and downloading your email data from that point forward, forever, whether you use New Outlook again or not. Changing your password after using New Outlook will show the firewall is no longer having email data requested by the data centers Microsoft owns.

Microsoft won't be punished for this, because they are likely setting up to catalog/cache the entire world's email even if you don't subscribe to Microsoft for email service, and we all know there are government back channels perfectly fine with this since they'll be able to see anyone's email.

 

[Dush Ku]

Horrible experience not having unified mailbox

 

[Wendi martin]

I'm not waiting any longer for a "final build" to share my thoughts on this app. In short, it's terrible. I hate it, and I want the old Mail & Calendar back.

I actually hate the new Outlook for Windows : Read more

I totally agree. So far I've been able to hang onto Windows Mail but I know at some point they're going to force me to use the awful new Outlook. Can you recommend any solid 3rd mail programs?

 

[The Werewolf]

For me it's simple: I do NOT want my email on someone's server. I want it local on my machine where I can back it up and move it to where *I* want it to be.

This is the core reason I use WIndows over macOS (I was a Mac user for almost two decades) - *I* want to control my data. The only reason I put up with the desktop version of Outlook is that I have the file format documentation for PST files, so if needed, I can retreive my emails without Microsoft's help.

If Microsoft keeps pushing, I'll switch to Thunderbird - and then, ironically, since I no longer need Access, I can ditch Office entirely.

 

[Shermanica]

I feel the same way. I had the option to try it at work last year. After a few days I decided and didn't like it and changed back. This year it was a forced change and it doesn't feel nice. In my first few days experience it took me an hour to just to figure out how to change something really basic in a series of meetings. My impressions have not become better & it feels like a horribly clunky experience.

As a whole, between October to February I had an ever increasing volume of issues with various parts of the Microsoft product line. In the end after roughly 30 years of mostly having Windows based machines, I had finally had enough with Microsoft. I cancelled the subscription to my PC and ordered a new Mac instead, which is something I have never even considered before. It isn't perfect & my work environment still has a lot of Microsoft products I have to use, but my frustration level has gone down massively. I have still had issues with a PowerPoint freeze and something going wrong with Onedrive leading me to an hour search and a new heart attack that I had lost my presentation. But in a work context, I feel fairly sure I will never go back. (I do still have my own private Windows computer though)

 

[mmcpher]

I've intermittently tried this dreadful new Outlook, every few months, but haven't been able yet to stomach it and I go back to the old. Surely it's got to improve? Surely not! It's like a train wreck that hasn't happened yet. That doomed train was a long way off, coming down the track, but no one ever does anything to fix it, and it's getting closer every minute to the big wreck at the finish. It's the Microsoft way. Instead of putting the long lead time to good use, improving the new Outlook, they're instead content to pester and nag, this awful thing's coming for you. There's nothing you can do! Till it increasingly feels like a threat or some gratuitous punishment. There must be some real back-end reason for this.

 

[Noise]

A few days ago my company transitioned from dropbox and a random mail service and went full MS Office365. I think all of my colleagues still used Outlook as client, but I immediately turned to Thunderbird. When support remoted into my computer they tried setting up Betterbird but couldn't get it working so I said they should get Outlook going. And I hate it! So badly! It's UI is crap and there are so many little things that cannot be customized the way I want them. But yesterday I found out that there is a plugin called Owl that got Betterbird to work. I'm so gonna pay it, out of my own pocket, just so I don't have to use Outlook or New Outlook (which was actually slightly better).

 

[mullern]

In addition, I did not get the Email Merge function to work. I used it so often in Mail, but I do not get a single mail out when I use the new Outlook mail app.