If you didn’t see my last post:

The 'New Outlook' A Total Disaster

I don’t know what is going on in Redmond, but this is getting to be ridiculous! I was working on a PC which the user had Windows Mail as their E-mail client. He’s always dismissed the prompts to switch to the ‘New Outlook’. That said, sadly, after a recent update he found himself with the ‘New Outlook’ as his e-mail client. Now, I’ve seen, in the past, a button was available to revert back to your prior application, but nope, not in this case, no slider button appeared. He had no choice, Microsoft unilaterally imposed the ‘New Outlook’! Now, as…

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I’ve been trying to help a client upon which Microsoft imposed the ‘New Outlook’.

Now, I did end up setting them up on Mozilla Thunderbird.  It’s a really solid e-mail client, one that I’ve set up for various clients for years now which can do the typical Outlook stuff (E-mail, Contacts, …).

That said, I kept digging because, in the past with other clients, I had always managed to revert back to Outlook (or as Microsoft is now labeling it ‘Classic Outlook’).
 

A Few ‘Possible’ Solutions For Reverting Back From The Disaster That Is The ‘New Outlook’

Toggle Button

If you’re really lucky, in the upper right-hand corner of your application you may see a ‘New Outlook’ toggle (slider) in which case you need only click it to revert back to the ‘Classic Outlook’

Registry

I’ve seen numerous forum post in which people advise you to locate the registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Preferences\UseNewOutlook

and set it to 0

Outlook Menu

I’ve also seen people mentioning

• Open Outlook
• Navigate to the Outlook menu
• Uncheck the option for the New Outlook
• Click the Revert button

 
 
Now, in the case of my client, none of these were available.  No toggle, no such registry key existed, I couldn’t locate any Revert button.  So I kept digging.

In my current case the solution was to:

• Click on the Settings button (little gear icon in the top right-hand)
  
• Go to the General section
• Click on the About Outlook section
• Click the Open Mail now button
  

Then I got presented with a notification that the New Outlook would be imposed again at a later date (so it’s coming whether we like it or not type of thing) and then a dialog to provide feedback.  Once I got through that and confirmed 2-3 times, Mail finally open again.

Yeah!  End-User Victory!!!

Sadly, the joy was short lived.  Firstly, reverting to did restore the previous shortcuts that were in place on the PC to the Windows Mail app.  Then things got worse.  When I closed the app and tried to launch Mail again, the ‘New Outlook’ opened.  So it would seem my client would need to revert every single time they launch their e-mail client which is plain ludicrous.

So, as it stands, at least in the case I’m working on, there appears to be no effective way to revert back!

It wouldn’t be such an issue if the ‘New Outlook’ actually worked properly, but it doesn’t so why are they currently imposing on everyone. Wait, fix your issues, they deploy. I just don’t get the non-logic Microsoft operates with time and time again.

I was still eagerly trying to find a fix from him to get him back to what he was most familiar and comfortable with.   Sadly, Microsoft has made this an impossibility.  Luckily for me, my client seems to be content with Thunderbird. Now, I’m actually suggestion he move to Linux and after loosing his favorite e-mail client, he’s actually considering it.