It's no secret that Microsoft has been pushing hard for its customers to transition from the built-in Windows Mail & Calendar apps to the new Outlook client. However, the move has been met with backlash and reservations from users, including our Senior Editor Zac Bowden, who argued that the client isn't yet ready for prime time with its sluggish performance as one of the major pain points.

"Enshitification," a user lamented on Reddit. "Release a new product with less functions than the old one, but promote it constantly as "new", then charge customers extra to upgrade to a product which is nearly as good as the old one, but not quite, those extra bits you need are classed as a premium add-on."

New Outlook is a disaster; why do they persist, it is missing so many features from r/Office365

Feature parity is evidently a major point preventing most users from transitioning from the Classic Outlook to the new Outlook client. However, Microsoft is working hard to bridge this gap and has shipped 15 features over the last few months to the new Outlook client (via Neowin).

Some of these 15 features include the capability to pin a mail, which makes it easier to track important messages as they trickle in. It also features modern themes, including a dark mode. Additionally, you can temporarily snooze an email from your inbox until it becomes timely and relevant again, and a meeting recap.

Other notable additions include: improved meeting tracking, schedule send, and keyboard shortcuts to help you enhance productivity by bolstering effectiveness and efficiency.

To that end, Microsoft previously indicated that adoption and transition to the new Outlook client are slowly picking up pace; however, it's still pushing the opt-out phase by one year. This suggests that the company is giving organizations ample time to make the bold jump.

It's worth noting that Microsoft will continue supporting the Windows Mail & Calendar apps through 2029.

Have you transitioned to the new Outlook yet? Let me know in the comments.

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Microsoft is officially retiring Outlook Lite on Android on May 25, 2026, ending support for the lightweight email client designed for low‑end devices and slower networks. The company is directing users to transition to the full Outlook app, which now serves as Microsoft’s single mobile email experience.

While Microsoft says the main app has improved enough to replace Lite, the change raises concerns for users who relied on the smaller footprint and faster performance. The move also signals a broader consolidation of Microsoft’s mobile strategy as it focuses on a unified Outlook experience across platforms.

This news, spotted by Neowin, didn't come out of nowhere, as Microsoft originally announced its intentions to begin the Outlook Lite retirement process in September 2025.

The Outlook Lite app will stop working almost entirely (you'll be able to launch it, but that's about it) after the cut-off date, according to a Microsoft 365 MC1276508 support message. If it's the main way you access your email, I recommend setting up an alternative app now.

Microsoft recommends the Outlook Mobile app, designed for Android and iOS, and it's making it easy to transition. You can simply sign in to your accounts in the Outlook Mobile app to access all of your regular calendars, messages, and attachments.

If you're still using Outlook Lite at this point, you should see an alert asking you to switch to the other app.

Of course, many users appreciated Outlook Lite's small package that didn't use up much install space or eat as much mobile data, and it climbed beyond 10 million downloads in its lifetime. Microsoft cut access to Outlook Lite downloads on October 6, 2025.

Why is the Outlook Lite app for Android being retired?

Outlook Lite has been around since 2022 for Android devices in specific regions, and it quickly became a popular option. With a 5MB install size and a narrower feature list, it was especially appreciated in emerging markets and with users owning older hardware.

Microsoft's decision to abandon the Lite version likely has to do with streamlining development and upping security. It can now focus entirely on the Outlook Mobile app going forward.

Although Microsoft recommends switching to Outlook Mobile, you aren't necessarily beholden to the official offering. Off the top of my head, Android mobile users might want to check out Proton Mail, Spark Mail, or the standard Gmail app as alternatives.

Were you one of Outlook Lite's users?

I've personally not used the Outlook Lite app on Android, so this news doesn't really affect me. However, I know that it was the go-to option for a lot of people.

Are you now being forced to make a change before the May 25, 2026 deadline? Which app will you use now? Let me know in the comments section below!

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Microsoft Outlook is a miserable piece of software on Earth, but also in space, too.

This week, NASA's Artemis II mission kicked off, which will take a U.S. manned space craft around the lunar body for the first time in fifty years. The mission is designed to test new technology and prep for future missions to actually land on the Moon itself, but one piece of earthly tech got an unexpected test along the way too.

Microsoft has been under fire for its software quality over the past few years. Everything from Office apps, the Xbox PC app, to Windows 11 itself, Microsoft has pledged a return to quality control in its PC suite. Things have gotten so bad, Microsoft is also building a "dream team" of developers to build native Windows apps, ditching web-based options. The fixes couldn't come soon enough for the Artemis II mission though, sadly.

In a clip going viral on X, an astronaut from the Artemis II live feed can be heard saying, "I see that I have two Microsoft Outlooks, and neither one is working," before asking ground control to "remote in" and fix them.

Indeed, Microsoft split the Outlook client on Windows into several different versions, frustratingly, named Outlook, Outlook (PWA) and Outlook (Classic) on my PC. The classic version is the native OG app with POP3 and IMAP features you might remember from the 90s. The more recent versions are progressive web apps, and are notoriously poor.

My colleague Zac Bowden recently posted the below video showing just how long it takes for Microsoft Outlook to open an email from a notification. I frankly had no idea you could even open an email from a notification, my assumption was that it simply didn't work — I never even bothered to wait for it to time out.

Microsoft Outlook is a huge staple of Microsoft's productivity suite, and has been there for many decades in various forms and permutations. The latest iteration stripped away much of the functionality and speed of its UWP native predecessor, opting instead for a sluggish web-based version that rarely functions as advertised. The mobile versions are crammed with useless AI features on the consumer side too, as part of Microsoft's broader haphazard push to find ways to make AI worth using.

There are tons of reasons why Outlook might've failed in space, it might not necessarily have been Outlook's fault, but it is a comical glimpse into the wider reputation Microsoft's software suite has earned for itself: Outlook should be waaaaaaaaaay better than it is.

With Microsoft's focus now returning to quality on Windows 11, will Outlook and other notoriously poor Windows built-in apps get a space-worthy glow up? Only time will tell. Until then, perhaps NASA will end up swapping to Gmail instead.

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They say in space no one can hear you scream. Apparently, they can't read your emails either — at least if you use Outlook.

NASA and the crew of the Artemis II are making history this month. The crewed rocket took off Wednesday, April 1, 2026, and is headed to orbit the Moon.

Artemis II is the first crewed mission of NASA's Artemis program and its journey will be the first to travel near the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Artemis II serves as a stress test for crewed NASA missions to the Moon. While the spacecraft will not land on the Moon, it will orbit the Moon and travel back to Earth.

Its launch experienced delays and some issues, such as the toilet breaking (it's since been fixed). Commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen are currently orbiting Earth while they perform tests.

One hiccup came as a bit of a surprise, but not to those who rely on Outlook for work.

Wiseman sent a message to mission control on Thursday explaining issues with Microsoft Outlook.

"I also see that I have two Microsoft Outlooks and neither one of those is working," said the commander.

Wiseman's tablet is a Microsoft Surface Pro. Engadget looked through the Artemis II livestream but did not hear of a resolution to Wiseman's Outlook issue.

I checked DownDetector to see if there was an Outlook outage, but I could not find a version of DownDetector that covers space. The site supports dozens of countries, but the drop down menu lacks an option for Earth-to-Lunar orbit.

Microsoft has two versions of Outlook, the terrible "new" Outlook that's basically a web wrapper and Outlook "Classic." Neither worked for Wiseman.

NASA has several livestreams of the mission from different perspectives, giving viewers unique access to a mission of this kind.

If all goes to plan, we can all watch Artemis II orbit the Moon on Monday, April 6.

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The hassle of finding a contact in Outlook just disappeared for good. An update to the new Outlook brings a "completely reimagined People experience" that gets rid of the organization trees in directory hierarchies.

Instead, Outlook users will be able to type a name, location, job title, department, or personal note into the app. Outlook will then find the person without you having to jump through directories or swapping account types.

People from your organization's directory and your personal contacts will appear through the new search experience, as will people from linked accounts.

Below is the explanation of how the improvements work, as outlined by Microsoft (bolded headers), plus some other ways that the new Outlook has been refreshed:

• Lightning-fast keyword search - Search across names, email addresses, job titles, locations, departments, and even your own notes and tags. A few keystrokes is all it takes.
• Smart suggestions - As you type, People in Outlook intelligently surfaces the most relevant matches based on your communication patterns and organizational context.
• One search, every contact source - Whether the person is in your organization’s directory, your personal contacts, or a linked account, search brings them all together in one unified result set.
• Instant action - Once you find who you’re looking for, you can email, call, or start a Teams chat directly from the search results - no extra clicks required.
• Modern multi-column table view - See all your contacts at a glance with a clean, customizable table layout. Sort, filter, and scan your contacts faster than ever.
• Quick actions at your fingertips - Email, call, or chat with any contact directly from the contact list. No need to open a contact card first.
• Multi-select and bulk operations - Need to categorize, email, or manage multiple contacts at once? Select them all and take action in a single step.
• Categories for flexible organization - Organize your contacts with color-coded categories that work across Outlook. Tag contacts as “Key Clients,” “Project Team,” “Vendors,” or anything that fits your workflow.
• Import and export - Easily bring contacts in from CSV files or export your contact data whenever you need it.
• Consistent experience everywhere - Whether you’re using Outlook on the desktop, Outlook on the web, or Teams, the People experience is the same - modern, fast, and reliable.

The new People experience is available now in the new Outlook for Desktop. It is rolling out gradually to Outlook on the web to all Microsoft 365 users.

If it is available on your version of Outlook, you can access the feature through the "People" icon on the left-hand side of the app.

I always find changes like this confusing. They come across as "our app finally does what it always should have done!" But I'm happy to see the new Outlook improve.

The new Outlook had a rocky start and still trails behind its predecessor in many ways. It wasn't exactly an endorsement of the new Outlook that Microsoft had to break Mail & Calendar in an effort to get people to switch.

The new Outlook was not ready for prime time when it launched, but it has improved since then. It now supports several offline functions and a wider range of file types.

Between those improvements and the new People experience, Outlook is inching toward usability.

Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.

Many Windows users are against Microsoft’s controversial move to replace the Mail & Calendar apps with the new Outlook, citing issues such as missing features, poor performance, and more.

Our Senior Editor, Zac Bowden, argued years ago that the new Outlook app for Windows 11 isn't ready for prime time because it's a web wrapper. "For whatever reason, Microsoft thinks it’s okay for the default Windows mailing experience to be no better than a [glorified] website," he lamented.

Well, a new feature is coming to Outlook for Windows that could improve the user experience, at least a little. As spotted by Neowin, the email client will soon let users attach files to emails while offline, which will then be sent automatically once the internet connection is restored.

The feature, under the ID 496371 tag on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap, was initially supposed to ship to broad availability this month, but the timeline has since been moved to between April and May 2026.

💬 Is Microsoft making Outlook for Windows's user experience better?

This update means that a power outage or an unstable internet connection will no longer significantly disrupt your workflow, since you'll be able to add attachments in Outlook for Windows even when your device drops its network.

Naturally, emails aren't worth much without an internet connection in the first place, but it's a small help.

It's also worth noting that the feature could ship enabled or disabled by default, depending on your configuration of the OWAMailboxPolicy-OfflineEnabledWin policy.

Still, when it reaches broad availability, you'll be able to enable it by going to Settings > General > Offline in Outlook for Windows. From there, turn on offline email, calendar, and people, and make sure the Include file attachments option is toggled on.

Elsewhere, Microsoft recently announced that it is extending the deadline for the transition from the Mail & Calendar apps to Microsoft's new Outlook email client for Windows for enterprises. The opt-out phase is now slated to begin in March 2027, which essentially gives organizations an additional year to make the transition.

What's your experience with the new Outlook email client? Let me know in the comments!

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Microsoft is replacing classic Outlook, gradually, and now even more gradually if you can believe it. The long-running desktop Outlook app is being replaced with a newer client called Outlook for Windows, with the goal of unifying Outlook across Windows, web, and mobile.

However, that transition does not appear to be going as smoothly as Microsoft hoped. It was recently revealed that the opt-out phase of the migration has now been pushed back by at least another year.

Now you might be wondering what the opt-out phase actually is, or where the opt-in phase fits into all of this. Well, that is where the migration timeline comes in.

The Microsoft’s Outlook migration timeline

Microsoft began the transition to the new Outlook for Windows back in 2022 with a private preview for testers. A public version followed in 2023, allowing users to try the new client if they opted in, and, honestly, I did not realize it had already been that long.

By late 2024, the new Outlook for Windows reached General Availability. That effectively meant it was ready for broader commercial use, and by December 202,4 Microsoft retired the Windows Mail app and replaced it with the new Outlook.

In 2025, Microsoft began pushing the transition further by automatically moving personal Microsoft accounts and some businesses to the new app. That rollout continued throughout the year as Microsoft tried to accelerate adoption.

Now in 2026, Microsoft has extended the deadline for enterprise users to prepare for the next stage. The opt-out phase will now begin in March 2027 instead of the original April 2026 target.

Microsoft says adoption of the new Outlook is picking up pace, according to TheRegister, but pushing the opt-out phase back another year suggests plenty of organizations are still not ready to make the jump.

That is not too surprising either. Outlook sits at the center of many business workflows, and when tools like that change, even small differences can create issues for people unfamiliar with the new software.

With support for classic Outlook continuing until at least 2029, it looks like this transition is going to remain a slow and gradual one for quite some time yet.

🗨️ Do you like the new Outlook app for Windows?

Have you or your business made the transition to the new version of Microsoft Outlook for Windows yet or are you still holding off?

Let me know in the comments and make sure to take part in the poll below:

Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.

In the latest edition of "AI features that are actually useful," Microsoft Copilot will soon be able to reschedule your meetings if a conflict arises. A new feature in Outlook will allow the app to reschedule personal appointments and one-on-one meetings if a higher priority meeting needs that time slot.

A Tech Community post explains how the feature works and outlines some use cases:

"Imagine you have a recurring check-in meeting, but it doesn’t have to be at the exact same time each week. Just ask Copilot to manage the meeting: It will keep an eye on your calendar and reschedule the event if you schedule or accept another meeting at the same time."

The feature allows you to set dates and times that are acceptable for rescheduling. A notification within Outlook will let you know when a meeting has been moved.

You can choose not to specify the best alternatives dates and times, but doing so will yield worse results, according to Microsoft.

To make sure the feature works, you need to set an event's status to "Busy" or "Out of office."

Microsoft is still working on this feature, so it has some limits. For example, if you create a recurring event with the new Copilot feature turned off, you cannot enable the feature for a specific instance of the series.

The feature is currently rolling out to Teams, Outlook for the web, and new Outlook for Windows users. A Microsoft 365 Copilot Enterprise license is required to have Outlook reschedule meetings automatically.

🗨️ How do you use AI?

AI receives a lot of hate, and much of it is justified. The effects of AI span across several industries and have personal and environmental impacts at a massive scale.

But AI is here to stay, so I think we should encourage healthy and useful uses of the technology. This new Outlook feature is a small addition that makes everyday life a bit easier.

How do you use AI in your everyday life? Let us know in the comments!

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Microsoft continues to push AI onto its users, proving that each Microsoft product can — and often will — serve as a billboard for services from the tech giant. An upcoming feature for Microsoft Edge will open Copilot in the side pane automatically when you click a link in Outlook.

I'm sure that Microsoft would argue the feature is useful, but everyone I've spoken to responded negatively. From jokes asking what Microsoft is doing to playfully cursing at the tech giant.

I don't think those reactions will be exclusive to my friends and colleagues. This feature is genuinely odd given the recent backlash against Microsoft forcing AI into more products and services.

The new feature is detailed on the Microsoft 365 roadmap:

"When users open links from Outlook, Microsoft Edge can automatically open the Copilot side pane to provide contextual insights and actionable suggestion chips based on email and destination content - such as highlighting key points, and recommending next actions - without disrupting the browsing flow. This experience helps users quickly understand content, take action with fewer steps, and get more value from Copilot while extending productive browsing time in Edge."

The roadmap entry does not specify if the feature will be enabled or disabled by default, I would assume the latter. Even if the Microsoft Edge team views this feature as genuinely useful, they should be aware enough to realize many would consider the feature being the default behavior of Edge as invasive.

The side pane mentioned by Microsoft is likely in the same spot as the Edge Sidebar, which is currently set for retirement. The Edge team appears keen to reserve that space for Copilot specifically.

The new feature for Edge is currently set to roll out in May, but that could change. Microsoft recently explained that it will not end support for legacy printer drivers on Windows 11, which was contrary to a previous entry on the Microsoft 365 roadmap.

Microsoft claimed that roadmap entry was inaccurate and has since been updated. But any feature on the roadmap can change.

I'm hoping Microsoft either changes its plans for the feature that opens Copilot automatically or at least ensures the feature is off by default when it launches.

💬How do you feel about Copilot being integrated into Microsoft products?

The new Microsoft Edge feature is pitched as a helpful shortcut, but most reactions I’ve heard range from confused to outright annoyed, especially with AI already being pushed heavily by Microsoft. Would the feature help your workflow or be an annoyance?

Drop your thoughts below and join the conversation!

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I was casually checking my email after resetting my password to download a copy of DaVinci Resolve when I was served an advert for “Cheap Dota 2 accounts.” Clicking through took me to a website openly selling gaming accounts for up to $1,000, covering Fortnite, Call of Duty, Roblox, GTA, and more.

Not only that, but it's against ToS (terms of service) for these games to resell your accounts, and yes, even Call of Duty, an IP now owned by Microsoft.

Microsoft approves the adverts via advertising networks that then appear within Outlook, which makes this even more surprising. I’m also not sure whether to be offended that it thinks I need a Dota 2 boost, or that I even play Dota 2, joking of course.

Let’s go over just how messed up this is, and how Microsoft is essentially endorsing an extremely shady practice that could lead to permanent bans or worse for users who unknowingly think this is okay because it’s Microsoft serving them the ads.

Why selling game accounts breaks platform rules

Before we jump into why this breaks Steam’s rules, let’s first look at what Microsoft says about advertising in Outlook. On its official “About ads in Outlook” support page, Microsoft explains that ads shown in the free version of Outlook are delivered through advertising networks such as the Microsoft Audience Network and Meta Audience Network, and that advertisers buy placements through those systems.

Both approve ads using either automated systems or human review, meaning this likely slipped through the cracks of an AI rather than a human but is still equally concerning as ads appearing with outlook would come across as safe and okay for users by Microsoft and in this case the site linking me to buy Dota 2 accounts doesn’t seem too safe and if anything was quite shady.

Now over to Steam, in their Steam Subscriber Agreement (something users have to agree to), Valve specifically states the following:

Just to add insult to injury for Microsoft here, reselling your Microsoft account is also against Microsoft’s own Terms of Service, meaning they’re essentially endorsing a practice that even they themselves don’t allow.

Whether preventing account resales is properly enforced or not is a different story, but my issue here stems more from how shady this site was and how easy it seems to be to trick these AI systems that regulate these things.

Whichever way you look at it, this is not a good look for Microsoft. Sites like these often carry risks, including users having their details stolen, which also raises concerns about the growing reliance on automated systems and AI that sit at the core of Microsoft’s future strategy.

This also isn't an isolated incident, and people have been reporting the issue for at least a couple of years, with varying dodgy-looking adverts.

🗨️ How do you feel about Microsoft serving ads that are against platforms Terms of Service?

Have you ever seen questionable adverts inside Outlook or other Microsoft services?

Let us know in the comments, and make sure to take part in our poll below:

Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.

Microsoft is going to remove Contact Masking, a feature that allowed users to hide suggested recipients from appearing when composing emails or adding people to the Cc field.

When you typed a name or email address, Outlook would suggest contacts based on your previous interactions. If you clicked the X next to a suggested name, Outlook would “mask” that contact, preventing it from appearing as a suggestion again

Admittedly, this is a feature I did not even know existed. That is probably because I quietly left Microsoft Outlook behind, partly due to frustrations I know many others share, and moved over to Thunderbird instead. For the most part, it has been a far more enjoyable experience.

Still, as tempting as it is to throw shade, I will hold back, just a little bit anyway. Instead, let’s take a closer look at the feature Microsoft is removing, what it actually did, why it is going away, and a few other Outlook annoyances worth mentioning.

Why Microsoft is removing contact masking

On the surface, it sounds harmless enough. The problem is that the change did not just affect Outlook. Masking a contact also removed it from suggestions across other Microsoft 365 services, including Teams and Microsoft 365 Search, which is where much of the confusion began.

While users could undo hiding a contact, the option only appeared briefly after masking it. According to Microsoft, that short window added to the confusion, and there are currently no plans to replace the feature or add anything similar.

Outlook has had its fair share of missteps lately. Just last month, it became “completely unusable” for some users, and the month before that, it somehow let spam overrun Sean’s inbox, our own news writer here at Windows Central.

Contact Masking is set to be removed on March 31, 2026, for all Outlook users across desktop, mobile, and the web (via Neowin).

Did you ever use Contact Masking in Outlook?

What do you think? Was Contact Masking a useful feature, or did it cause more problems than it solved? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to take part in the poll below:

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Microsoft's Exchange Web Services (EWS) API has been on its way out since an initial retirement announcement in 2018, but we now have some concrete dates as to when it will officially disappear forever.

Beginning October 1, 2026, Microsoft is rolling out a "phased, admin-controllable disablement plan" that will eventually wrap up with a complete EWS shutdown in Exchange Online on April 1, 2027. Microsoft highlights the fact that these EWS changes only apply to Microsoft 365 and Exchange Online; no changes to EWS are expected in Exchange Server.

That leaves users and admins six months to prepare for the disablement plan, and Microsoft offers some advice to help make the transition as smooth as possible. The plan is to disable EWS one tenant at a time via the EWSEnabled property. A new AppID Allow List is also expected in early 2026, which is essentially an admin whitelist for app access to EWS.

Three values are supported in the EWSEnabled property:

• True: Starting October 2026, only apps in the new Allow List are allowed to access EWS.
• False: Starting October 2026, all EWS is blocked.
• Null: Starting October 2026, all EWS is allowed and the Allow List is ignored.

Microsoft confirms that any tenants with their status still set to Null in the EWSEnabled property on October 1, 2026, will be automatically changed to False, blocking any applications in the tenant.

That's fine if you want to leave EWS blocked, but if not, you should take some proactive measures. Admins who change EWSEnabled to True and create an Allow List before the end of August 2026 will not be included in the automatic rollover to EWSEnabled False on October 1.

Failing to do anything and re-enabling EWS after it's blocked will result in a service interruption. And once April 1, 2027 rolls around, EWS will be permanently disabled, and the EWSEnabled property will be removed.

Microsoft also claims that it might perform scream tests where it turns off EWS temporarily in order to sniff out any missed dependencies before the final shutdown. The company says it will release more info in "the coming weeks."

Why is Microsoft retiring Exchange Web Services (EWS)?

Microsoft's EWS is a cross-platform API that makes it possible for a wide range of apps to access Exchange mailbox data, including messages, calendars, and contacts.

EWS has been around for almost two decades since it got its start in 2007, and it was indeed a useful tool. However, as Microsoft states, "it no longer aligns with today's security, scale, or reliability requirements." In 2023, the company announced it was going forward with its plan to retire EWS, but didn't provide a clear roadmap for the process. That's now changed with this update.

Replacing EWS is Microsoft Graph, a more modern API that provides access to Windows, Microsoft 365, and more. Its feature list is nearly on par "for the vast majority of EWS scenarios," and Microsoft urges users to begin migrating apps to Graph now.

Do you regularly use Microsoft EWS? Are you concerned about the migration process? Have you already made the switch to Graph? Let me know in the comments section!

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A 96GB database containing more than 149 million logins and passwords was recently discovered by respected cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler. The findings, which ExpressVPN published in its research blog, lay out Fowler's findings in detail.

The data, which was openly accessible to anyone who knew where to find it, was full of usernames and passwords from people all over the world. Estimates place email credentials at the top of the list of leaks, with Gmail alone taking up 48 million entries. Outlook is on the list with 1.5 million leaks. Yahoo, iCloud, and .edu addresses make up more than 6 million leaks.

Fowler lists Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, OnlyFans, HBO Max, Disney+, Roblox, Binance, and X (aka Twitter) as other notable accounts discovered in the exposed database.

It gets worse. Financial accounts, including crypto wallets, banking, and credit card credentials, were also spotted in the limited sample that Fowler viewed. The presence of .gov domain credentials from "numerous countries" has Fowler concerned about national and public safety; this sort of info can be used as an entry into protected government networking.

That's a wide enough swath that practically anyone plugged into the internet could be exposed. Here's a quick estimation of Fowler's findings:

• Gmail — 48 million
• Yahoo — 4 million
• Outlook — 1.5 million
• .edu — 1.4 million
• iCloud — 900,000
• Facebook — 17 million
• Instagram — 6.5 million
• Netflix — 3.4 million
• Binance — 420,000
• OnlyFans — 100,000

It's important to note that this database isn't the result of a single data breach or a targeted attack by hackers on one site. This is a gargantuan collection of credentials and other sensitive documents gathered over time by malware.

As Fowler explains it, data that is stolen has to be kept somewhere, and cloud storage is usually the first choice. It piles up over time, evidently harvesting from numerous sources. The hackers who originally had hold of the data were likely subject to their own data breach, which resulted in the database's open doors.

It's noted that the database isn't tied to any ownership; Fowler reported the breach to the cloud provider, but quickly hit a dead end due to the IP being a subsidiary acting under the provider's umbrella and name.

Fowler spent "nearly a month" involving "multiple attempts" before he was able to get the exposed database taken offline. There's no indication as to how long this database was being fed with stolen data, but Fowler notes that its records continued to increase right up until it was taken offline.

As I noted when I covered one of Fowler's previous discoveries involving 40 billion unencrypted records, use strong passwords (ideally through a password manager), never use the same password twice, and use multi-factor authentication to prevent access should a bad actor indeed get their hands on your credentials.

(via Tom's Guide)

What are you doing to protect yourself against data breaches like this? Let me know in the comments section!

Windows 11's latest Patch Tuesday update caused two serious issues that went unspotted during Microsoft's testing. The problems were so bad that Microsoft issued emergency out of band updates for Windows 11.

One issue prevented some users from fully shutting down their PCs or signing in to a device when using Remote Desktop. Unfortunately, they are not the only issues caused by the update.

Many users of Outlook Classic are unable to open the app or use it properly when opened. One user, Chris Seagrave, posted on a Microsoft page detailing the issue:

"The first is that when I first start my laptop Outlook Classic opens, but when I close it down I am now [unable] to open it again as Office tells me it is still open. I can go into Task Manager and close the Background Process relating to Outlook Classic which allows me to open Outlook Classic again, but this is not ideal as I would rather not do this. Alternatively I can restart my laptop and Outlook Classic will open, but if I close it down it won't re-open unless I either close the Outlook Background Process in Task Manager or restart the laptop."

Outlook Classic also fails to show sent emails within the "Sent Items" folder.

User John W shared that, "Outlook classic is completely unusable since this forced windows update. Random hangs, not saving emails, etc."

The solution appears to be to uninstall the KB5074109 update. Several people saw success after reverting to a previous version of Windows 11.

Microsoft kicked off 2026 with the KB5074109, which was the first Windows 11 update of the year. That update included several fixes, including one that addressed an issue that could cause NPUs to remain powered on when the system is idle.

But with the fixes came a new set of problems. This is part of a worrying trend that got worse in 2025 and appears set to continue this year unless Microsoft makes changes to its update process.

Last year, Windows 11 users ran into bugs that caused Task Manager to fail to close and File Explorer to show a white screen when opening dark mode. A separate update broke the Windows Recovery environment.

It's normal to see headlines and social media posts about Windows 11 bugs after each Patch Tuesday update. The problems ultimately come down to a lack of robust quality control, though the specifics are more complicated.

Our Senior Editor Zac Bowden explained why frustrating bugs creep into Windows 11 at an alarming rate.

This is not the first time Outlook Classic has run into issues. Last October a bug prevented the app from opening. A separate issue causes CPU usage to spike to 50%.

The latest Outlook bug is not as serious as a problem preventing people from shutting down their PCs, but it could still break someone's workflow. Many rely on Outlook Classic for work.

Have you run into any bugs since updating Windows 11 this month? Let us know in the comments!

Windows 11 will finally add an Agenda view to the Notification Center. Similar functionality existed in Windows 10 and worked well for years, but it did not make its way to Windows 11. Unfortunately, a small detail about the new version of the feature will upset some users.

It appears that the Agenda view feature will be a WebView2 component, which could result in more CPU usage and a less-than-native appearance. Windows Latest performed several tests to investigate the nature of the feature.

Since Agenda view is in preview, it did not work for Windows Latest. But attempting to use it loaded details from Outlook within a WebView2 shell. As a result, CPU and memory usage went up, seemingly as a result of the Windows Shell Experience Host process running to power the experience.

It's normal for the startup process of an app to cause a spike in computing demand that ends quickly. During their testing, Windows Latest saw "GPU Process" and "Utility" end after closing the Notification Center.

The fact that Agenda view is powered by the web could mean more system resources need to be allocated to it when compared to a native experience, even if the spike in CPU and memory usage is short lived.

Additionally, WebView2 components do not feel native on Windows 11. The font and other UI elements in WebView2 make features using the technology look like parts of the web living on your PC.

Many, including myself, have been frustrated by the fact that a useful Windows 10 feature was lost in the transition to Windows 11. At one point, I even paid for an app to add a functional calendar flyout to Windows 11. Hopefully, that will not be necessary once Agenda view ships to the operating system.

The new Agenda view is not identical to the previous iteration, though one could argue that it is better. It supports interacting with scheduled meetings, as you'd expect, but it can also engage with Microsoft 365 Copilot.

The latter of those features could be viewed positively or negatively, depending on the user. Our Managing Editor Jez Corden recently highlighted that "nobody wants to buy or use [Microsoft's] shoddy AI products."

Presumably, you'll be able to use the new Agenda view to simply view and interact with calendar events without AI.

Five spam emails flooded my Outlook inbox this morning, all of them bypassing Microsoft's filters and landing alongside important work messages. Outlook has a poor reputation for its spam filtering, but today's incident was particularly bad. It also made me wonder why Microsoft isn't using the resources at its disposal to fix Outlook's spam filter.

If Microsoft insists on forcing AI into everything from Windows 11 to Notepad, the tech giant should help everyday consumers with daily annoyances. Spam emails, at minimum, bog down productivity. In worst-case scenarios, they can be used to scam unsuspecting people and hurt organizations.

I'm not alone in my complaint. Reddit and Microsoft's website have several posts complaining about Outlook's spam filter that also suggest using AI to fix the problem.

To be honest, Microsoft may already have some form of AI working to flag spam emails, but the company clearly isn't using its best AI tools to address the problem.

AI email protection

When looking through my inbox and junk folder in Outlook, I noticed the Copilot logo already appears on the screen. Copilot in Outlook can summarize emails, draft responses, summarize meetings, and help in a variety of other ways. At the moment, Copilot does not seem to be involved in spam filtering — but I got curious.

To see if Copilot can already detect spam, I sent some screenshots of my inbox and junk folders to the AI tool. To my surprise, not only did Copilot correctly identify spam emails, it discovered legitimate emails that had been flagged as junk.

Copilot noted that it could not analyze the content of my inbox, which makes sense since I had just shared screenshots. To test Copilot more, I screenshotted the contents of a specific email that is obviously spam (but that had made it through Outlook's spam filter).

"That email is almost certainly junk, and likely part of a phishing or scam campaign," said Copilot. The tool then went on to explain why the email was junk.

• Sender address: customerservice@mh.familyaginglifecare.com
  • This domain has no connection to MailOnline, Dragons’ Den, or any reputable weight loss brand. It’s a random, misleading domain trying to look official.
• Subject line: ...The_Dragons’_Den_D.e.a.l._That_Changed_Everything#4650
  • The use of underscores, ellipses, and hashtags is classic spam formatting — designed to bypass filters.
• Recipient address: admin@zglz.kI9cA5k2.o5P
  • That’s not a normal email address format. It looks auto-generated or spoofed.
• Attachments:
  • A calendar invite (invite.ics) and a “not supported calendar message” — both are suspicious. Spammers often use .ics files to sneak in malicious links or auto-schedule scam calls.
• Body content:
  • Claims that all five Dragons offered £1 million for a supplement called “Lean X” — this is a fabricated story. There’s no record of such a deal on Dragons’ Den, and these kinds of fake endorsements are common in weight loss scams.
• Brand misuse:
  • The email uses the MailOnline logo and references a popular TV show to build false credibility. That’s a known tactic in spam campaigns.

I'd be willing to bet many of you saw the subject line and screenshot of that email and immediately recognized it as junk. Copilot determined the same thing. And yet, Outlook placed that email lovingly inside my inbox alongside emails from my friends, family, and colleagues.

On the flip side, Copilot can also identify legitimate emails that have been wrongly flagged as spam. The tool looked at a screenshot of my junk folder that I provided and correctly determined two of the emails shown were legitimate.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Copilot even referenced the fact that I am a football coach to strengthen the case that an email from Craig Roh is not junk. Roh sends out coaching tips and I have signed up for his newsletter. Copilot noted that the email was likely flagged due to its bulk formatting.

That's the type of behavior I would expect from an integrated tool within Outlook. Microsoft knows a lot about me already since I use Copilot often. Spam filtering should improve over time as I use Microsoft's AI suite and stay up-to-date with likely scams and nuisances because Copilot is plugged into the web.

Microsoft shipped the new Outlook for Windows app in broad availability to replace the built-in Windows Mail & Calendar apps. As you might have noticed, the older Mail & Calendar apps are no longer installed by default after installing Windows 11, version 24H2 on your device.

The change has received backlash from users, who've blatantly referred to the new Outlook app for Windows as a web wrapper, which may not live up to expectations due to a degraded user experience rife with UI consistency issues and performance degradation.

While Microsoft insists that the new Outlook delivers a “native” experience after addressing some of the issues listed above, many users, including our Senior Editor Zac Bowden, still believe that it's not yet ready for prime-time as the default Windows emailing experience.

As Microsoft is getting ready to cut support for the classic Outlook email client on Windows, it recently acknowledged and fixed a major bug that was preventing Microsoft 365 users from launching the email client.

Other users indicated that they received errors indicating that the app cannot be opened or that their attempt to log into the Exchange account failed. "Cannot start Microsoft Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook window. The set of folders cannot be opened. The attempt to log on to Microsoft Exchange has failed."

The tech giant advised users impacted by the errors to open a support case with the Exchange Online support team. However, the company recently updated the support document, tagging the issue as fixed. It further indicated that the Outlook team was keeping a close eye on the issue to ensure that it had been fully resolved.

Microsoft indicated that you can open a support case from the Microsoft 365 Admin portal if the issue persists. However, Exchange Online support will need to request a change from the service to mitigate.

But perhaps more interestingly, Microsoft still lists one more workaround at the bottom of the page for the issue "use Outlook Web Access (OWA) or new Outlook for Windows". Perfect!

Microsoft and Anthropic's Claude AI just got a bit friendlier. It was announced today that a new Microsoft 365 connector will allow Claude to access SharePoint, OneDrive, Outlook, and Teams.

Anthropic says that its newfound access to SharePoint and OneDrive will allow its AI to comb through documents saved "across sites and libraries," which removes the necessity of uploading the documents directly to Claude.

Claude will also be able to read your emails in order to "extract insights from your correspondences," which it believes will help users fully grasp "project status, client feedback, or team alignment."

And for Microsoft Teams — you guessed it — Claude can search through your conversations and meeting notes to get a better idea of what the team has been planning.

This collaboration is made possible using Anthropic's Model Context Protocol (MCP), a feature introduced in 2024. It's an open and universal standard created to allow for easy AI integration, and it's something that Microsoft quickly adopted as it looks for new ways to add AI to Windows 11.

Microsoft's big announcement this week regarding a new, dedicated AI assistant that can be commanded with natural language — "Hey, Copilot!" — includes Manus, an AI agent designed to quickly and easily build websites.

Thanks to an MCP connection, Manus can be commanded to grab files and photos from your PC to build a custom website while you work on other projects.

Alongside the new Microsoft 365 integration, Anthropic has introduced an enterprise search feature that's intended to make it easier to find specific data in shared projects.

Once a shared project is set up with connected apps and data sources, custom prompts can be used to quickly search a knowledge pool that includes everyone involved in the project.

Anthropic offers an example of how enterprise search can aid professionals working within a large team:

"For example, ask Claude about your company's policy on remote work and get information from HR documents in SharePoint, email discussions in Outlook, and team guidelines from various sources in one detailed report."

The newfound AI alliance won't be available for just any Microsoft 365 users. The new connector that adds Claude to SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, and Outlook is only available for Claude's Team and Enterprise subscribers. Enterprise search is also now enabled for those same subscribers.

Claude's new permissions with the Microsoft 365 connector

I don't blame you for questioning how Anthropic and Microsoft are keeping your data safe with the new Microsoft 365 connector.

As stated by Anthropic, "all permissions are delegated permissions." If you don't have access to view something in Microsoft 365, neither will Claude. The AI assistant only has read access, meaning it can't create new content, delete files, or modify anything within Microsoft 365.

Beyond that, Anthropic says that Claude "mirrors your existing Microsoft 365 permissions" and can only access data "when you explicitly ask questions requiring it."

Microsoft and Anthropic get closer as OpenAI's dominance wanes

Microsoft and OpenAI have a complicated relationship. The Redmond giant has poured billions of dollars into OpenAI in exchange for a hefty 49% stake in the AI company's for-profit division, which also resulted in ChatGPT being hosted exclusively on Microsoft's Azure servers.

That exclusivity changed in January 2025 when OpenAI announced the Stargate project. The initiative roped in key investors from Softbank and Oracle to build $500 billion worth of data centers in the US.

While Microsoft continues to hold "right of first refusal" — allowing it to have first dibs on hosting OpenAI's models on its own servers — OpenAI can look elsewhere for computing power if Azure can't keep up.

With OpenAI often treating its partnership with Microsoft as something it can use and abuse, Microsoft has begun to diversify its AI reliance. GitHub Copilot, for example, offers ChatGPT, xAI, Gemini, and Claude. That only makes sense from a business standpoint.

On September 10, 2025, Microsoft made another big move towards diminishing its overreliance on ChatGPT when it announced it would be using Anthropic's AI to run new features in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.

While OpenAI and Claude continue to work side-by-side in Microsoft 365, Claude's Sonnet 4 model is particularly adept at generating slides, PDFs, and spreadsheets from a chat prompt, a huge boon for those who frequently use Office apps.

(via The Verge)

Microsoft really wants people to use the new Outlook, and apparently, breaking Mail & Calendar with an update wasn't enough to get people to switch.

A new blog post from the company outlines the benefits of the new Outlook app, which has shipped as the default email and calendar experience for Windows 11 since late last year.

The new Outlook is a web wrapper, so it will look familiar to anyone who has browsed their emails or calendar with Outlook on the web. Many of the features highlighted by Microsoft are available in both the new Outlook app and Outlook on the web:

• Pin important emails
• Sort and search for attendees
• Apply new themes and colored mailbox folders
• Add shared mailboxes as accounts
• Use Copilot-powered inbox prioritization and email drafting
• Create structured, professional, and richly formatted newsletters
• and so much more!

The new Outlook does have some features that Mail & Calendar lacked, such as the ability to sweep emails from your inbox. It also integrates well with Microsoft 365 apps and services.

But the new Outlook also has ads unless you're a paid user and lacks popular features from Mail & Calendar. The app didn't allow users to open attachments while offline until last month.

Quite a few people prefer Mail & Calendar and wish it were still around. Wino Mail attempts to replicate Mail & Calendar and does a respectable job, but it's not the same as Microsoft's old app.

What is a native Windows app?

When it comes to Windows 11 apps, native doesn't mean what it used to. At least colloquially, native used to refer to a UWP (Universal Windows Platform) app made specifically for Windows. Now, "native" can refer to a variety of app types.

Microsoft recommends WinUI and the Windows SDK for creating apps, but there are other options.

React Native for Desktop can be used to create a native UWP XAML application. Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is another option for developers.

Microsoft even lists Win32, Windows Forms, and UWP under "Other native platform options" in a support document. Noticeably absent from that section are Progressive Web Apps (PWAs).

The new Outlook is a PWA, which in my mind suggests it is not a native app. But the folks at Microsoft may have a different opinion.

Microsoft's blog post says that the new Outlook is "deeply integrated with Windows to bring functionality that you expect of a rich, native app." While that statement does not technically say the new Outlook is a native app, it claims the app delivers a native-like experience.

The new Outlook is a web wrapper built on its Edge Browser, though it has some added functionality. So, Microsoft is correct when implying the new Outlook has "functionality that you expect of a rich, native app." But the new Outlook is not a native app.

Honestly, very little of this would matter if the new Outlook were a good app. But it has been met with criticism for its performance, design, and lack of features.

If you've followed our coverage of the new Outlook, you're well aware that our Senior Editor Zac Bowden and I dislike the app. Bowden said, "Microsoft is wrong: The new Outlook for Windows is not ready for prime time," last summer. The app has improved since then, but I don't think it's ready for prime time.

The fact that Microsoft has to push this hard to get people to use the new Outlook is concerning. Microsoft forced the new Outlook onto Windows 10, made Mail & Calendar inoperable, and shared a blog post that tries to convince people to switch.

Some marketing is acceptable and expected, but if a new app is better than its predecessor, people should want to switch without prodding.

The inevitable Windows 10 end-of-life date is just around the corner, as Microsoft is expected to cut support for the operating system on October 14, 2025. However, the software giant has provided multiple ways for users to continue receiving security updates after Windows 10's imminent death through its Extended Security Updates (ESU) program.

Windows 10 users can sync their PC settings to the cloud via a Microsoft account, redeem 1,000 Microsoft Reward points, or pay $30 for extended security updates (ESU), which now supports up to 10 devices.

However, Microsoft clearly prefers these users to upgrade to Windows 11, and has been making bold statements like "Windows 11 PCs are up to 2.3x faster than Windows 10 PCs" to push Copilot+ PCs sales. Still, that's a bit of a stretch since many modern devices still ship with full Windows 10 compatibility, making it difficult to compare old hardware against modern-day AI PCs.

With Windows 10's death fast approaching, Windows 11 has been gaining traction and broad adoption and is now the world's most dominant desktop operating system. However, users have blatantly expressed their reluctance to upgrade to Windows 11, citing flawed design elements and strict minimum system requirements.

But perhaps more interestingly, there seems to be a surge of software apps that allow Windows 10 users to upgrade to Windows 11 on unsupported hardware. For instance, Tiny11. It's a tool that can create a lightweight version of Windows 11, designed to run on older PCs that don't meet Windows 11's strict system requirements, developed by NTDEV.

The industrious developer has released multiple updates to improve the platform's functionality and user experience by shrinking its size by removing bloatware and pre-installed apps that might be deemed unnecessary, at least by some users.

NTDEV recently shipped a new update for Tiny11, which removes a sizeable list of apps from Windows 11 (via Tom's Hardware):

What's more, NTDEV says Tiny11 Builder supports Windows 11 25H2. Microsoft is expected to ship Windows 11 version 25H2 between September and October to broad availability, but it won't ship with any new features.

It's also worth noting there's a more powerful iteration of the Tiny11 Builder called Tiny11 Core Builder, which is already available alongside the September 2025 release.

However, the developer has flagged Tiny11 Core Builder strictly for testing purposes and "a quick and dirty development testbed." For instance, it can make Windows 11 images much smaller but at the hefty cost of some serviceability features.

Windows 11 won't be Windows 10's default replacement

Is it just me, or is the list of alternatives to Windows 10 growing as its end-of-life approaches, pushing Windows 11 far from being the preferred or default upgrade? WINUX is probably the most recent example, which is basically a Linux distro that's been heavily inspired by Windows design elements.

While Microsoft has extended support for Windows 10 users beyond its official end-of-support date, the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) has petitioned the company’s decision, warning it could trigger the largest surge in discarded computers to date.

The group claimed Microsoft's ESU program feels like a last-minute snooze button, merely a band-aid on a bleeding system. Elsewhere, The Restart Project, co-developer of the End of 10 Toolkit (designed to support Windows 10 users after Microsoft ends official support), echoed PIRG's concerns, suggesting that the extended security updates program is not a viable solution. "It's obvious users are frustrated and feel yanked around," the group added.

Another group called End of 10 has been advocating for users to completely ditch Microsoft's ecosystem for Linux after Windows 10's end-of-support, citing a lack of ads and telemetry tracking as the main incentives for the huge jump.

A separate report suggested that Microsoft is poised to pocket up to $7 billion through its ESU program from enterprise clients by charging $61 per device. This has prompted multiple users to claim that Microsoft ending support for Windows 10 feels like "programmed obsolescence" designed to bolster Copilot+ PC sales and Windows 11 upgrades. At least we have a few other options now.

Last week I looked at my Outlook inbox and noticed I had thousands of messages saved. They were all read emails, but they sat in my inbox and mocked me as part of an ever-increasing count.

While I look at emails that come into my inbox, I rarely delete them. If an email is important, I tell myself I need to save it in case I need it later. If an email is not important, I just forget about it.

That admittedly poorly thought-out plan for email management results in a lot of emails in my inbox, very few of which need to be there.

I suppose the emails don’t do any real harm sitting in my inbox, but seeing over 10,000 emails bothered me, so I decided to do some late spring cleaning. Using Outlook's Sweep feature, I deleted over 10,000 emails. I then used other features in Outlook to organize my inbox and prevent future fill-ups.

Sweep in Outlook

Sweep has been available in Outlook for years. Microsoft used to run ads for Outlook that focused on cleaning up your inbox. I've used it before, but obviously not in a while.

The feature lets you perform the same action on every email from a specific recipient. By default, using Sweep on an email address will move those messages to the Deleted items folder, but you can also use it to move all emails from someone into specific folders.

While my main focus was deleting old emails, I also used Sweep to move all emails related to the American football team I run into their own folder.

Using Sweep is simple. After you've opened any email or selected one or more emails, click the ellipsis menu (...) in Outlook. Then select Sweep. You'll then be presented with four options:

• Move all messages from the Inbox folder
• Move all messages from the Inbox folder and any future messages
• Always keep the latest message and move the rest from the Inbox folder
• Always move messages older than 10 days from the Inbox folder

Notice that the phrasing of each prompt is about moving messages from the Inbox folder. That's because you can select the destination from the dropdown menu.

I repeated this process for a bunch of emails I’d received over the years and cleared out 10,767 emails in one week. I also set up several rules that will reduce clutter going forward.

Managing subscriptions in Outlook

Another way to keep a clean inbox is to slow down or stop the flood of emails you receive. Outlook has a feature that lets you unsubscribe from most services without having to jump to another website. Even when you have to visit another page, Outlook takes you straight to the unsubscribe section.

Outlook will occasionally show a prompt that says, "Getting too much email?" along the top of the page. Within that prompt, you can click "Unsubscribe" or "Manage subscriptions."

You can also get to the section to manage subscriptions by following these steps:

1. Click the Settings icon (⚙️) in the upper-right corner of Outlook.
2. Select Mail.
3. Select Subscriptions.

You'll then see all the sites you're subscribed to. I was surprised to find out I was subscribed to receive emails from over 100 websites at one point. Some of those subscriptions are important, such as billing emails and account information. But most of them were for services I used at one point and no longer rely on.

Clicking "Unsubscribe" will take care of things in many cases. I noticed some sites require a new page, but most of the time, Outlook jumped straight to the unsubscribe page and handled the process for me.

Hopefully, between subscription management and Sweep, I won’t find myself in the same mess three years from now.

Microsoft Outlook for iOS and Android is about to get an AI feature that will help you see your most important emails. Priority view within Outlook will sort emails into two categories: High priority and Needs replies.

The new feature will start rolling out at the end of this month, but it will take quite a while until all users can take advantage of the Copilot feature. Microsoft notes in its message center (archived here) that the rollout will continue until December 2025.

Microsoft does not mention the feature rolling out to Outlook for the web.

To use the new feature, you'll need a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. Microsoft 365 Copilot is a paid add-on to standard Microsoft 365 plans. It is aimed primarily at business and enterprise users.

Once Priority view ships to Outlook on your mobile device, you can enable the feature through Settings > Copilot > Prioritize > Priority view. You can specify how long you'd like to have emails kept in the prioritized inboxes, though the feature is capped at three days.

If Priority view is enabled, you'll be able to access it through the sparkle icon that appears along the top of Outlook.

Many, including myself, have criticized Microsoft for adding AI to so many apps and services. There are some instances in which AI feels forced or like it's bloating apps, such as Notepad.

👉RELATED: How to disable AI in Notepad

But I'm excited to try Priority view within Outlook. I get a ton of emails, and it can be difficult to stay on top of them. Because of my job and the fact that I run a community sports team, I often get emails from new people. Folders and filters can only do so much.

I'd love to see Microsoft use Copilot to improve Outlook in other ways, such as improving the app's spam filter. It's honestly shocking what gets flagged as spam and what gets through unchecked when using Outlook.

Microsoft's controversial new Outlook app has a major update. If you're on the latest version of the app, you'll be able to access Copilot Pro or use AI credits through a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription. The app now supports email coaching with Copilot and several new features as well.

The June 2025 update for the new Outlook adds support for replying and forwarding emails in a .pst file, moving emails between accounts, and searching for folders while offline.

Microsoft also added the ability to add shared folders to Favorites within the new Outlook.

If you're not a fan of Copilot in Outlook, you can disable the tool through Outlook's Copilot control page.

All of the changes to Outlook are improvements, but I doubt they'll be enough to convert those who dislike the web-based app.

Below is the full change log from Microsoft.

What's new in new Outlook for Windows

Sharing Copilot in Outlook

When logged into Outlook with an account that has access to Copilot Pro or AI credits through a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription, Copilot features will be available for all connected email accounts. This includes Outlook.com, Hotmail.com, Live.com, MSN.com, and third-party providers such as Gmail, Yahoo, and iCloud, as long as they are logged into Outlook on the same device. Learn more by visiting Sharing Copilot in Outlook.

Get email coaching with Copilot

Have an important email to write and want to feel confident that it effectively conveys your intended message? With Copilot in Outlook, you can get helpful suggestions on how to adjust the tone, clarity, and reader sentiment before you hit send. Learn more by visiting Get email coaching with Copilot in Outlook.

Reply and forward emails in a PST file

With this update of support for .pst files (also known as Outlook Data File) in the new Outlook for Windows, users will be able to reply and forward emails in a .pst file. Future releases of new Outlook will expand the support for .pst file capabilities.

Move emails between accounts

Consumer users can now seamlessly move emails between their personal accounts, streamlining organization and productivity.

For Enterprise users, this feature is off by default and is controlled by a policy managed by administrators. By enabling this policy, admins can grant their users the ability to move emails between accounts in a way that aligns with organizational needs and policies.

Offline "Days of email to save" expanded to 30 days

The default mail sync window in offline mode has been expanded from 7 days to 30 days.

Offline search folders

Search folders, which help users group emails based on certain criteria, are now available while offline.

Undo send while offline

The ability to cancel an email message after you've selected Send is now supported offline.

Add shared folders to Favorites

We're thrilled to announce that you can now add shared folders to your Favorites. This enhancement offers increased flexibility and convenience, allowing easy access to important shared content directly from your Favorites list.

External tag in contact suggestions

An External tag will be added to contact suggestions that appear in the dropdown when entering contacts in the email compose form.

Disable Copilot in Outlook

To disable Copilot, open the Settings window and visit the Copilot > Copilot control page. From there, you can switch the Turn on Copilot control off.

Why I hate the new Outlook

The cliché goes, "Actions speak louder than words." Microsoft's actions say the tech giant does not care about native apps on Windows 11.

The built-in video editor that ships with Windows 11 is a web app, as is the new version of Outlook.

I admit that some web apps are fine on Windows 11, but I still prefer a nice native app over a wrapped website.

The new Outlook is now forced onto Windows 10 and ships with Windows 11 despite being worse in several ways compared to Mail & Calendar.

The new Outlook is slower than Mail & Calendar, has issues with notifications, and takes up significantly more RAM than the app it replaces.

I should clarify that Mail & Calendar was better than the new Outlook. Microsoft has since dropped support for Mail & Calendar and the app can no longer send or receive emails.

Our Senior Editor Zac Bowden said it best when explaining why the new Outlook is not ready for prime time:

"That’s probably because it’s not a Windows app, it’s a web app. For whatever reason, Microsoft thinks it’s okay for the default Windows mailing experience to be no better than a [glorified] website. When I compare this experience to the clean and lightweight one of Apple Mail on the Mac, or Samsung Mail on a Galaxy Tablet, it’s simply no contest. Those apps are easier to use, smoother to navigate, and faster too."

Microsoft has shipped several updates since Bowden's editorial was published, but the core issues he raised remain.

I don't hate the interface of the new Outlook as much as some do, but I miss the native performance of Mail & Calendar.

Microsoft is working on new icons for several of its applications. Earlier this year, the tech giant sent a survey to select users asking for feedback on new icon designs.

"At Microsoft, we're always striving to improve our products and create a user experience that truly resonates with you," read the email sent in April. "Today, we're excited to invite you to participate in a brief 15-minute survey that will help us better understand your preferences and opinions about our exploration of different iconography designs for Microsoft 365."

That survey included potential new icons for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams, OneNote, and Defender. Now, those who enjoy the new icons can download and use them, albeit unofficially.

Reddit user Thunder_Ruler0 cleaned up the leaked icons and created high-resolution versions of each of them. The resulting icons look clean, especially considering they're based on fuzzy source material and the artist created the upscaled versions in a couple of hours.

Thunder_Ruler0 shared a Google Drive folder with the icons in their Reddit post.

I like the look of all the new icons, but the Outlook icon may gain the most attention. In addition to having a modern design, the Outlook icon is yellow. That would be a return to form since the Outlook icon was changed from yellow to blue over a decade ago.

As far as I can tell, the new yellow Outlook icon is only a fan creation by Thunder_Ruler0. The survey sent out by Microsoft last month only showed a blue Outlook logo.

Outlook 2013 introduced a blue logo for the app, marking a major shift from preceding versions of Outlook. Until that point, Outlook had a yellow logo that clearly differentiated it from other Microsoft services.

Word, OneDrive, Yammer, Defender, and Outlook all have blue logos in 2025. Microsoft's icons differ in shape, but I would love to see more color variation across the Microsoft software suite.

If you prefer the refreshed Outlook icon in blue, it is also available in Thunder_Ruler0's Google Drive folder.

As for actually using the yellow Outlook icon, you may have more luck switching to it for Outlook (classic). The new Outlook is a store app, so customizing its icon is tricky. You can create a desktop shortcut for the app and change its icon through Properties, though I haven't had any luck getting the custom icon to appear in the Start menu.

Which Outlook icon is your favorite? Let us know in the comments!

Microsoft recently acknowledged a critical bug impacting Outlook Classic users. The company indicated that the bug causes an issue that increases CPU usage, which could spike up to 50% when typing in the app.

According to Microsoft:

"When you write an email in classic Outlook for Windows, you may notice the CPU spikes up to 30 to 50% at some times and increases the power consumption. You can observe this if Task Manager is open while you type."

Shockingly, the issue seemingly dates back to November 2024, when several users flooded social media with complaints. "CPU activity goes to 16-22% when typing a message in Outlook 2016 and returns to 1 % when typing stops," a user explained the issue in Microsoft's Community forum.

Affected users indicated that deactivating add-ins, Graphic acceleration, and spell-check options didn't resolve the issue. The issue seems to be specific to users in the Current, Monthly Enterprise, or Insider channels updated to Outlook Version 2406 Build 17726.20126 and later.

While Microsoft works on a permanent fix for the annoying issue, it recommends that affected users transition to the Semi-Annual Channel release, which hasn't been impacted by the bug.

Several users indicated that the bug seems to be specific to Windows 11 users, potentially suggesting that Windows 10 hasn't been impacted. Windows 11 users can switch to the Semi-Annual Channel by following the steps highlighted below to avoid the CPU spike issue when typing in the Classic Outlook app:

1. Open a Command Prompt and select the Run as administrator option.
2. Paste the command highlighted below and press Enter: reg add HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\16.0\common\officeupdate /v updatebranch /t REG_SZ /d SemiAnnual
3. Finally, navigate to File > Office Account > Update Options and select Update Now to switch to the Semi Annual Channel.

This is a developing story, we'll be sure to keep tabs on any new developments or a permanent fix for the issue and equally keep you posted.

Have you been impacted with the CPU spikes when typing in the Classic Outlook app in Windows 11? Share your experience with us in the comments.

Windows 10 users now have a worse email experience, at least in the eyes of many who dislike the new Outlook. The latest update to the operating system includes security fixes, but it also installs the new Outlook for Windows app. That means fans of the classic Mail & Calendar app need to adopt the new Outlook app or switch to a different email client.

The new Outlook is a controversial app that has drawn quite a bit of criticism. Many of the complaints center around the new Outlook being a web app, which has resulted in worse performance than the native Mail & Calendar app. People have also quibbled over the design of the new Outlook, though whether the new app has a better or worse design than its predecessor is subjective.

We already knew that the new Outlook would be forced onto Windows 10 PCs. This week's news is that the forced rollout has begun. Anyone who receives the latest security update to Windows 10 will also receive the new Outlook.

The Windows 10 KB5051974 update rolled out this week on Patch Tuesday. It is a mandatory update, meaning it should show up on your system automatically if you're running Windows 11 version 22H2. Bleeping Computer highlighted the rollout of the new Outlook and Microsoft's release notes for the build.

• [Mail] New! You now have the new Outlook for Windows app. A new app icon appears in the Apps section on the Start menu, near classic Outlook. There are no changes to any settings or defaults. If you are an IT admin, learn how to manage this update at Control the installation and use of new Outlook.
• [Screen capture] Fixed: The Capture Service and Snipping Tool stop responding. This occurs when you press the Windows logo key+Shift+S several times while the Narrator is on.
• [Chinese Pinyin input method editor (IME)] Bing will stop giving automatic suggestions in the search box for search engine sites like Baidu. To get manual suggestions, use Ctrl+Tab or the chevron button (>). 
• [Digital/Analog converter (DAC) (known issue)] Fixed: You might experience issues with USB audio devices. This is more likely when you use a DAC audio driver based on USB 1.0. USB audio devices might stop working, which stops playback.
• [USB audio device drivers] Fixed: The code 10 error message, "This device cannot start," appears. This occurs when you connect to certain external audio management devices.
• [USB cameras] Fixed: Your device does not recognize the camera is on. This issue occurs after you install the January 2025 security update.
• [Virtual memory] Fixed: An issue depletes virtual memory, which might cause some apps to fail.

What's happening to Windows 10?

It's unlikely Microsoft's leaders and developers consider the new Outlook to be a downgrade. The tech giant has a guide on how to prevent users from switching to the new Outlook. If you're on Windows 11 version 23H2 or later, the new Outlook is preinstalled, so you have to remove it.

Blocking the installation of the new Outlook onto Windows 10 requires admins to use a reg value. Admins also have the option to remove the new Outlook if it has been installed.

👉 Read more: Microsoft is wrong: The new Outlook for Windows is not ready for prime time

The same update that forces the new Outlook onto Windows 10 includes several bug fixes. Windows 10 users won't see many more updates like this since the operating system reaches its end of support in October of this year. Microsoft has shared warnings and blog posts about the cutoff for several years. Once Windows 10 reaches end of support, it will no longer receive security updates. Extended support will be available from Microsoft, but it will cost quite a bit.

Microsoft Teams has a new calendar experience that brings it in line with Outlook. The new calendar integrates the calendar experience from Outlook into Teams, which means the calendar within Teams has a new look and new features. Delegate access, print support, expanded calendar settings, and support for multiple time zones are just some of the features making the jump from Outlook to Teams.

Microsoft announced the availability of the unified calendar experience in a blog post. The new calendar is an opt-in experience, so organizations will not see any change unless admins choose to enable the unified calendar. It's also possible to switch back to the classic calendar at any point.

The unified calendar experience includes support for Copilot and Places, which means features like managed bookings are now available within the Teams calendar. Workplace presence and Places card are also available within Teams following the calendar update.

The following views are available in the unified Calendar, as outlined by Microsoft.

• Month View: View your calendar by month, a highly requested feature, especially useful for users with sparse calendars.
• Split View: When more than one calendar is selected, you can now split the calendar into two independent views.
• Time Scale: Specify time scales or intervals for the calendar surface
• Saved Views: Save your current view for easy access later
• Weather Display: See the weather for your current location directly in the calendar

Within the new unified calendar, you can customize settings, such as when events start and your location. Printing your calendar and sharing your calendar with people in your organization is also possible following the update.

Here's how to enable the new calendar in Teams:

1. Open Microsoft Temas (desktop).
2. Navigate to the Calendar app within Teams.
3. Click the toggle for "New Calendar" that appears in the upper-right corner of the Teams Calendar app.

Microsoft notes that the new calendar should load within a few seconds, so you may not see the change at the exact moment you enable the feature.

To be honest, it's always been strange to me that Microsoft had such a different calendar experience for Teams. The tech giant has one of the best-known calendar apps and Teams has been around for several years. But Microsoft has revamped Teams several times since the app came out, so it's not a huge surprise to see a new calendar. A unified Teams app shipped last August and Microsoft announced arguably the biggest change in Teams history in October.

Outlook users may not be able to send emails at the moment. The behavior is caused by a bug that affects classic Outlook. Specifically, you may see the issue after updating classic Outlook to Version 2412 (Build 18324.20168). Microsoft has a fix for the issue on the way and you can also mitigate the problem by rolling back classic Outlook to a previous version.

The new Outlook is unaffected by the issue, so only those on classic Outlook may run into problems.

Microsoft outlines the issue and how to confirm if the bug affects your system in a support document:

"After updating to Version 2412 (Build 18324.20168) classic Outlook may crash when starting a new email, or when replying or forwarding an email.

You can confirm if this is the issue by looking at the Windows Event Viewer Application Log for crash Event 1000 or Event 1001, and the following event details:   Faulting application name: OUTLOOK.EXE, version: 16.0.18324.20168, time stamp: 0x677828da Faulting module name: OUTLOOK.EXE, version: 16.0.18324.20168, time stamp: 0x677828da Exception code: 0xc0000005 Fault offset: 0x0000000001a7c02a Faulting process id: 0x0xFD0 Faulting application start time: 0x0x1DB65D0FD0B9857 Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\OUTLOOK.EXE Faulting module path: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\OUTLOOK.EXE"

The fix for this issue will roll out later this month. Microsoft expects to ship a build without the bug on January 28, 2025. The tech giant also shared steps to mitigate the issue immediately by rolling back to a previous version of classic Outlook:

1. Open a Command Prompt in Administrator context.
2. Type or paste the two commands into the Command Prompt window and press Enter after each:cd %programfiles%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRunofficec2rclient.exe /update user updatetoversion=16.0.18227.20162
3. To prevent Office updating back to the latest build you can turn off updates by selecting File > Office Account > Update Options > Disable Updates.
4. Put a reminder on your calendar for February 11th to re-enable updates. Or, check back on this Known Issue in case it is addressed sooner.

Microsoft will soon roll out an update to push the new Outlook onto Windows 10 PCs. Forcing the new Outlook onto PCs will likely draw some criticism, but there is no way to block the installation of the app. Microsoft has a support document on removing the new Outlook after installation, however.

You only have a few weeks before the new Outlook is forced onto your Windows 10 PC. The new Outlook will arrive automatically with an optional Windows 10 release that will ship on January 28, 2025. The app will then roll out to all Windows 10 PCs as part of the monthly security release to Windows 10 that will become available on February 11, 2025.

The new Outlook will not replace classic Outlook on PCs through this update. At least for now, people will be able to use the new Outlook and classic Outlook side-by-side. Microsoft plans to replace classic Outlook at some point, but that will come later.

But the new Outlook competes with more than classic Outlook. The new Outlook is meant to serve as a replacement for the Mail & Calendar app, an area in which many believe the new Outlook falls short.

👉 Read more: Microsoft is wrong: The new Outlook for Windows is not ready for prime time

I'll touch on the new Outlook vs. Mail & Calendar below. But first, here is the message sent out through the M365 Message Center, as archived by MWorkspacePro (with some formatting changes for clarity):

M65 Message Center about Outlook

Message ID: MC976059

New Outlook for Windows will be automatically installed on Windows 10 devices as part of an upcoming monthly security release.

When this will happen:

Available as part of:

• The optional Windows 10 release on January 28, 2025.
• The monthly security update release for Windows 10 on February 11, 2025.

How this affects your organization:

New Outlook exists as an installed app on the device. For instance, it can be found in the Apps section of the Start Menu. It does not replace existing (classic) Outlook or change any configurations / user defaults. Both (classic) Outlook and New Outlook for Windows can run side by side.

What you can do to prepare:

Guidance for how to control the installation of new Outlook can be found here: Block new Outlook pre-install on Windows.

New Outlook criticisms

The new Outlook replaces the Mail & Calendar app that has been built-in on Windows for years, even dating back to Windows 10. The Mail & Calendar app is a native application that is lightweight and looks at home on Windows 11 and Windows 10. In contrast, the new Outlook is a web app.

The new Outlook works fine, at least in most cases. But it's not a native application. It is missing features seen in Mail & Calendar and does not look like a Windows app (because it isn't one). Our Senior Editor Zac Bowden shared his hatred for the new Outlook last year:

"I genuinely think the new Outlook for Windows is the worst built-in OS email client of any OS platform on the market right now. Samsung Email is better than this. Gmail is better than this. Apple Mail is better than this. Why? Because all of those apps are built using native UI frameworks that integrate with the OSs they're built for."

I agree with Bowden's take, and I've seen similar complaints in the comment sections of articles about the new Outlook and in other places around the web. I don't want to just rehash his arguments from last March. But in short, the app looks worse, lacks features, and isn't as quick or reliable as Mail & Calendar, at least in our usage.

It's unfortunate that the new Outlook continues to be forced onto PCs in favor of a better app Microsoft has had for years.

What you need to know

• The AI-generated summary of the new Outlook in the Microsoft Store criticizes the email app.
• The Microsoft Store started including AI-generated summaries of app reviews in July 2023.
• The new Outlook, which is set to replace Mail & Calendar on Windows 11, has received criticism for its design, performance, and feature set.

The Microsoft Store has some criticism for the new Outlook. The store listing for Mail & Calendar, which will be replaced by the new Outlook this year, lists an AI-generated summary criticizing the email app. The text is based on reviews from everyday users and does not paint a pretty picture of the new Outlook.

Microsoft rolled out AI-powered summaries within the Microsoft Store around a year ago. The aim is to make it easier for users to get a gauge of an app without having to scroll through a bunch of reviews. The Microsoft Store looks through the reviews and then uses AI to generate a summary. Of course, that means that an app with a bunch of negative reviews will have a negative summary, which is exactly what's happened with the new Outlook. The Microsoft Store listing for the app states:

"Users highly recommend the Mail and Calendar app over the new Outlook, citing its simplicity, ease of use, and lack of ads. They appreciate the app's ability to handle multiple accounts and create custom background images. Users hope that Microsoft will not discontinue the app and allow offline access."

The AI-generated summary was highlighted on Reddit by ceoadlw. The new Outlook will replace the Mail & Calendar app later this year, so Microsoft still has some time to refine the app.

People hate the new Outlook

The new Outlook has proven controversial since its inception, and it's not just Microsoft Store reviewers that have negative things to say about the app. Our Senior Editor Zac Bowden explained why he hates the new Outlook for Windows earlier this year. Bowden went as far as to say he thinks "the new Outlook for Windows is the worst built-in OS email client of any OS platform on the market right now."

The new Outlook lacks the unified inbox seen in Mail & Calendar. It also performs worse than its predecessor and takes up more RAM when it use. Reliability issues are also common with the new Outlook, though some of that could be related to the app being in preview. But as Bowden points out, Microsoft pushes the new Outlook on users and automatically pins the app to every Windows 11 PC's Start menu. If the app was that far from being finished, Microsoft shouldn't push it so hard.

Before you run the defense of the new Outlook because the app is in preview, much of the app's criticism revolves around facts that are unlikely to change when the app is stable and generally available.

"I know the app is branded as a preview, and Microsoft probably will get around to fixing some of these issues over time," said Bowden. "But there's no fixing the fact that it's a web app that doesn't even attempt to make itself feel at home on Windows. It doesn't look or feel like a Windows app, and it's definitely not as fast or as lightweight as the old Windows Mail & Calendar apps."

Microsoft's shift toward web apps comes with inherent drawbacks, such as apps feeling out of place and being "heavier" than native counterparts. Those problems won't change with bug fixes; they're here to stay.

If the Microsoft Store continues to use AI to summarize app reviews, I doubt things will get much better for the new Outlook. Assuming the summaries are genuine and based on actual reviews from users, there will be more criticism than praise for the AI to sift through.

What you need to know

• Multiple Outlook users have reported their emails aren't reaching Gmail recipients.
• This is predominantly because of Google's new mandatory bulk sender authentication requirements for Gmail, flagging Outlook emails as spam.
• Microsoft acknowledged the issue indicating the issue is affecting users with Outlook.com country domains, recommended a temporary workaround, and is working on a permanent fix.
• The tech giant recommends adding an Outlook.com alias to your impacted account to contact Gmail users.

Google and Microsoft are at it again. As reported by multiple users across social media platforms, Gmail is blocking Microsoft Outlook emails after Google recently implemented new mandatory bulk sender authentication requirements for Gmail.

The new mandatory bulk sender authentication requirements are reportedly the root cause of this issue. As a result, some Outlook emails sent to Gmail users are being flagged as spam, thus making it difficult for the information to get to the recipient.

These new requirements are in place to keep spam, phishing attacks, and malware at bay. Google is expected to fully implement the requirements in June, as part of its broader efforts to provide users with a smooth, seamless, and secure email experience.  

In such an instance, you might get the following message explaining why the Outlook message was flagged as spam in your inbox:

"Remote server returned message detected as spam -> 550 5.7.1 [[ IPAddress]] Gmail has detected that this message;is likely suspicious due to the very low reputation of the sending;domain. To best protect our users from spam, the message has been;blocked. For more information, go to Why has Gmail blocked my messages?"

Microsoft acknowledged the issue and indicated the issue is impacting some users with Outlook.com country domains, preventing them from sending emails to Gmail. While Microsoft is actively working towards resolving the issue, it has already provided a temporary workaround that will help users circumvent it as highlighted below:

"Until the Outlook.com Team can address the issue use the following workaround: 
Add an Outlook.com alias to your account and send email to Gmail users using that alias. For more information, go to Add or remove an email alias in Outlook.com."

For context, an Outlook alias is an additional email address linked to your Outlook.com account. It also shares the inbox, contact list, and account settings with your primary address. 

Gmail and Outlook's rivalry 

This isn't the first time we've witnessed such an occurrence. Last year, Google shipped a long-anticipated feature to Gmail users, ultimately allowing them to respond to emails using emojis. The feature is limited to Gmail account holders, making it impossible to use on other accounts such as Outlook. 

Microsoft has had its fair share of issues with Outlook. From users blatantly indicating that they hate the new Outlook to Microsoft forcefully upgrading users to the new Outlook app for Windows before it imminently replaces Mail & Calendar apps.

What you need to know

• Several users have posted screenshots on Reddit showcasing an error message asking them to install Microsoft Edge on their devices while trying to access the new Outlook app for Windows.
• The main reason why this is happening is because the app leverages the Microsoft Edge Webview 2 for various web functions.
• Mozilla recently placed Microsoft under fire for using deceitful and harmful designs to get people to use Microsoft Edge on Windows devices forcefully.

Despite Microsoft's heavy investment and a big push for AI on Microsoft Edge and Bing, Google continues to dominate the search and browser market share. But recent reports show that the tech giant isn't taking this lightly. 

Earlier this month, Mozilla placed Microsoft under fire for using harmful designs and deceptive tactics to give Edge a competitive advantage over other browsers on Windows. And now, it seems Microsoft has a new "trick" under its sleeve designed to get more people to use its Chromium browser, Microsoft Edge. 

It seems having Microsoft Edge installed is a mandatory requirement for running the new Outlook app on Windows 11 and Windows 10 (via MSPowerUser). Several users have posted screenshots on Reddit with error messages indicating they need Microsoft Edge installed on their Windows PC to access the new Outlook app.

The new Outlook requires the latest Edge version to work. from r/assholedesign

This error message pop-up is that the new Outlook app leverages the Microsoft Edge Webview 2 for various web functions. As such, users will need to have Microsoft Edge installed on their devices to access the new Outlook's web-based features.

It's Microsoft Edge versus other browsers at this point

In a report by Mozilla earlier this month, the company indicated that Microsoft doesn't allow users to use any browser as their default setup on Windows. Many users echo these sentiments while simultaneously complaining about how bloated Microsoft Edge has gotten over the past few years.

RELATED: All these features are on the way to Outlook in 2024

This isn't the first time this is happening, either. Last year, Microsoft Edge was being forced on users again through Microsoft Outlook and Teams. Users were forced to open links from Azure Active Directory accounts, and Microsoft accounts in Edge by default, regardless of their default browser settings. This might be another reason the new desktop Outlook is a bad idea. 

Microsoft announced that they will discontinue the nostalgic and simple Mail, Calendar, and People applications at the end of 2024, with Outlook set to replace them for an out-of-the-box Windows 11 experience. Some of my colleagues don't appreciate the Mail & Calendar apps, as is obvious in that article. However, some like the ease of use and simplicity of just seeing your mail in one application and not having to deal with calendar notifications and everything else. 

If you would like a simple mail application on your Windows device, the Wino app developed by Burak Kaan Köse or @TrayhopeR on X (Twitter.)

Why should I use Wino?

As Microsoft works to bundle services and features into one app, hoping they can please everybody, they have yet to include all of the best features. We recently discussed the new changes coming to Outlook in 2024 and the most recent updates to the Outlook app. 

The Wino app has a small but significant list of supported features for how new the project is. From support for any Microsoft Live account to Gmail account integration to the newly implemented IMAP/SMTP mail account support. The app is off to a great start. 

• Microsoft Live accounts (MSN, Hotmail, Live, Outlook etc.) and Gmail via API integration.
• IMAP/SMTP mail accounts via protocols.
• Sending and receiving mails. Even when the application is closed.
• Live notifications are supported via background synchronization.
• Blazingly fast and super responsive UI with bunch of personalization settings to make it more user friendly.
• Dark / Light app and mail reader support. You can toggle them individually anytime.
• Delete, archive/unarchive, move, mark as read/unread, change flag... All mail operations are supported.

For some people, the integration with AI, calendar events, Teams integration, and the dozens of other initiatives Microsoft is cramming into Outlook is just too much of a hassle. If that describes you and you want to give an application a try that will outlive the 2024 purge planned for the Microsoft Mail app, the Wino app has some great user feedback and is being actively developed. It boasts a superb 4.7 review score with 68 reviews, and the developer says over 5,000 people used the app.

The app has some simple but great UI settings options. You can match the accent color, change to night or light mode, and make the side panel bigger or smaller. Take a look at the settings page.

Developer Burak Kaan Köse is looking for community feedback to improve the app. Feel free to check out the project on the app's GitHub page, and if you encounter any issues, they stated in response to one of our branded posts on X (Twitter) that they appreciate any feedback. 

It is great to have the opportunity to spotlight a new and upcoming app that has had a great community reception so far. The work these single developers do to keep options open for the rest of us often goes underappreciated. Still, in this instance, I wanted to spotlight the extraordinary work being done on the Wino app. 

Have you tried the Wino app? Are you sad to see the Mail app vanish to the ether? Let me know in the comments. 

What you need to know

• Microsoft shipped a new version of Outlook for Windows recently.
• The new Outlook brings together some of the best features of the Outlook web experience and the Legacy Mail app.
• There are, however, key features missing from the new Outlook.
• Microsoft outlined its plans for new features that should ship to the new Outlook in 2024.

Microsoft released a new Outlook app in October 2023. The app is essentially the web version of Outlook wrapped into a desktop application, but it has some additional features. The new Outlook is here to replace the Legacy Mail and Calendar apps on Windows and will eventually replace the desktop version of Outlook from the Office suite.

Our guide on what's new in the Outlook app for Windows 11 runs through everything that's already here for the application. A new blog post from Microsoft outlines many of the features that are still in the works and scheduled for release in 2024.

Microsoft emphasized in its post that these are just some of the features and changes on the way to Outlook next year:

• Auto capitalization 
• Collapsible headers in the message list 
• Conditional formatting 
• Copilot 
• Drag and drop emails and attachments to the desktop  
• Dictation
• Preserve declined meetings 
• EML file support 
• File tab in Outlook search 
• Folder reordering 
• Inking (Draw tab) while composing an email 
• MSG file support 
• Offline support 
• Outbox folder 
• Picture formatting 
• POP3 account support 
• PST file support 
• Message Recall 
• S/MIME 
• Save as for attachments (choose folder to save to) 
• Share local files from Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 
• Shared calendar notifications for work accounts 
• Teams tab in search 

Microsoft also highlighted some recent improvements to the new Outlook:

• Gmail, Yahoo, iCloud, and IMAP account support 
• ICS file support 
• Message list selection improvements 
• Quick steps 
• Sort by sender or subject line 
• Scheduling across different time zones 
• Table styling improvements 
• Folder list experience improvements 
• Search folders (unread mail, flagged, or sent directly to me) 
• Reminders window 
• Find related messages (from this sender, in this conversation) 

What happened to Outlook?

Outlook saw a complete overhaul on Windows 11 earlier this year. The design of the new Outlook is entirely different to the old Mail app that was preinstalled on Windows previously. While new to Windows, the interface will look familiar to anyone who used the Outlook web client. That's because the new Outlook on Windows is the Outlook web experience wrapped within an app plus some added functionality.

The main addition seen in the new Outlook when compared to the web experience is that the Outlook app supports multiple accounts. That means you can sign into your Gmail, iCloud, and other accounts, such as those that support IMAP.

The new Outlook also has AI tools through Microsoft Editor if you're a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscriber.

While the new Outlook combines many features seen in the web version of Outlook and the old Mail app, it's still missing quite a few features. Most notably, the new Outlook requires an internet connection to work at all. 

Microsoft is working to add missing functionality over time. For example, ICS support, which is important for sharing and coordinating events, was not supported at launch but has since been added.

What you need to know

• Microsoft intends to transition the feedback entry point for Outlook for Web from the bottom of the Help pane to the Help tab of the ribbon.
• The change is designed to enhance the discovery for users.
• While Microsoft hasn't issued a specific date indicating when the change will be implemented, it is expected to take place in October 2023.
• Users will be able to add screenshots and videos to their feedback to simplify the process and quick resolution of the issue. 

Feedback is a key element when it comes to leveraging any service. Through feedback, users can communicate their thoughts regarding a service, provide recommendations and improvements, and even make requests.

Microsoft is keen on ensuring that its customers can provide feedback effectively and efficiently, which is why the company has announced a neat change coming to Microsoft Outlook next month. 

According to the Microsoft 365 Roadmap, "the feedback entry point for Outlook for Web will be moving from the bottom of the Help pane to the Help tab of the ribbon." The feature tagged 169101 will help enhance discovery for users, as spotted by OnMSFT.

Analysis: Detailed feedback for easier resolution

Communication has been a major barrier, especially when trying to explain an issue to Microsoft. The whole situation becomes more complicated when the end user doesn't have the technical knowledge to explain their challenges.

Microsoft has seemingly flagged this challenge and is working towards improving the experience for users. Being able to incorporate screenshots and video into your feedback will help save time and simultaneously allow the team responsible for handling these issues to identify them and provide fixes quickly. 

What you need to know

• In a 37-minute video, Microsoft shares its plans for the new Outlook regarding features, updates, and rollout.
• Microsoft envisions the platform as a hub connecting users to Microsoft 365, thus prompting effective communication.
• The company also indicated that incorporating AI capabilities into the platform will enhance productivity ten times.
• According to Microsoft, One Outlook addresses client fragmentation and provides users a unified experience.
• Microsoft is rolling out the new experience in waves and will give users a year's notice before making the transition permanent.

Microsoft's Group Product Manager on the Outlook team, Margie Clinton, and Partner Engineering Manager for Outlook for Windows, Robert Novitskey, recently got together to share more insight regarding upcoming features and updates for the new Outlook for Windows (which we broke the story of back in January 2021).

Things have been relatively quiet since April, when Microsoft shipped many features to the platform, including third-party account support and more. 

The 37-minute video (seen below) squeezes in much information, including plans for the new Outlook for Windows app. Microsoft envisions the app as a hub (Outlook as a Hub for me) where users can work efficiently and effectively. 

The company paints a vivid picture of how Outlook can be a connector to the Microsoft 365 suite since it's considered the starting point for communication. As such, this will help boost productivity. Microsoft also intends to incorporate AI capabilities into the platform, which it boasts will boost productivity ten times more. 

Microsoft also promises agility and code-sharing with the new Outlook for Windows app, where it can address issues within a timespan of hours and days, rather than the previous approach, which took weeks and months.

The new app also addresses client fragmentation, where users experience up to six clients across different platforms. As such, Microsoft aims to provide users with a unified experience across the board. One Outlook will provide a consistent user experience across multiple platforms.

Notably, the new Outlook for Windows app will ship with almost all the features across the Mail and Calendar apps, the web, and the Classic Outlook client. The new app combines the agility of a web codebase with the experience of a native client. 

Microsoft also highlighted a range of customization options available on the platform, from ribbon customization layout options to visual customizations that span from free to super-commercial users. 

It's worth noting that the app already ships with key features such as schedule send, snooze email, clear calendar when out of the office, pin important items, and more. Some features were already available on the web but not necessarily on Classic Outlook or Windows inbox apps.

Here's a glimpse of Microsoft's roadmap highlighting feature requests and their availability on the platform:

Next up, Microsoft indicated it will be rolling out updates to the new app in waves. The company refers to the whole experience as "a playbook for Outlook client updates" and indicated that the first phase would be the Opt-In or preview, where early adopters get to try out the new update before Microsoft ships it to more users.

In the next phase, Opt Out, everyone is transitioned to the new experience by default but will have the option of reverting to the Classic client. However, the user must explain why they are rolling back. Microsoft states that this is crucial as the information relayed plays an important role and informs decisions. 

The last phase, Cut Over, is when everyone has been transitioned to the new platform, and the option to roll back to the Classic client is scrapped. At this point, Microsoft should have refined the experience and expects everything to run seamlessly. 

The timeframe within which this process is supposed to take place has not been indicated, as it varies due to several factors. However, the change will be notified via the Message center or Tenant admin (usually one year before the change).

Notably, the Opt In and Opt Out timelines for Classic Outlook will differ from the Windows Mail & Calendar apps. 

Microsoft added that the new app is available in preview to the Monthly Enterprise Channel. However, access will be limited to users with eligible accounts, and admins can control access to the toggle on the client via a registry value.

And while we only highlighted the key points from the briefing, there's a ton of information shared on the video that you should check out, including a detailed FAQ segment that touches on some major concerns, including admin policies and the fact that COM add-ins will not be supported in the new Outlook.

What you need to know

• Google will finally display Microsoft Outlook users as organizers in Google Calendar.
• The change is rolling out to users in waves and could take up to 15 days to ship for everyone.
• It will be implemented for all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts.

Google is finally warming up to Microsoft via a new update that is in place to promote the inclusivity of Microsoft Outlook users in Google Calendar meetings. In the past, if you sent out an invite to a Google Calendar user via Outlook, your display name wouldn't be featured in the list of meeting attendees on Google Calendar.

But this will no longer be the case. As highlighted by the Google Workspace team:

"Starting today, we’re updating this experience so that the Outlook user who organized the meeting is listed amongst the other meeting attendees in Calendar as the meeting organizer."

The company also highlighted that the change would automatically roll out, and no action is required from the end-user or admin. Notably, the change is rolling out to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts.

It's worth noting that the change might not be available to you instantly, as it is rolling out in waves. And as highlighted by the company, it could take up to 15 days for the change to appear for some users. However, it already started rolling out on August 24, 2023.

Google should add support for more features

If you use Google Workspace Sync for Microsoft Outlook (GWSMO), you're aware that it doesn't support some features in Outlook Calendar. For instance, when attaching items to a calendar event in Outlook, it might be visible for you, but not for others. This can be attributed to the fact that attachments aren't synchronized with the rest of the attendees' Google calendars. 

Likewise, if you attempt to delete Outlook calendar, it will be removed from your Outlook Calendar Navigation Pane. However, it will still be available for others across their Google Calendar accounts. This is because it's not synchronized with Outlook. As such, you'll need to sign in to your Google Calendar account to delete the folder from there permanently.

Hopefully, these two services improve interoperability more going forward.

If you're planning to take a few days off from work or school, setting up automatic email replies is only part of the preparation. It's also important to update your Outlook calendar to let others know you’ll be unavailable, helping prevent unwanted meeting requests or project assignments during your time away.

In this how-to guide, I'll outline the steps to create an out-of-office calendar event across different versions of Outlook, including the desktop app, Outlook.com, and the new Outlook client on Windows 11.

How to create an 'Out of Office' calendar event from Outlook app

If you use Outlook 2024, 2021, 2019, or 2016 on Windows 11 (or 10), you can quickly create an event to let people in your circle know you won't be around for several days by creating an out-of-office calendar event.

To create an out-of-office calendar event on the desktop version of Outlook, use these steps:

1. Open the Outlook app.
2. Click the Calendar button in the bottom-left corner.
3. Select the calendar to add the new event from the left pane. For instance, your shared work calendar.
4. Select a day on the calendar.
5. Click the New Appointment button in the "Home" tab.

6. Confirm a descriptive title for the event in the "Subject" setting.
7. Use the "Start time" picker to select the day you're planning to leave work.
8. Use the "End time" picker to select the day you will return to work.
9. Check the "All day event" option.
10. Select the "Out of Office" option from the "Show As" setting in the "Event" tab.

11. (Optional) Create a custom message for anyone who will see your event.
12. Click the "Save & Close" button in the top-left corner.

Once you complete the steps, people who have access to the calendar will see you won't be available for several days.

How to create an 'Out of Office' calendar event from Outlook web

It's also possible to create an out-of-office calendar event when you plan to vacation using Outlook on the web.

To create an out-of-office calendar event on the web, use these steps:

1. Open Outlook (web) on the browser.
2. Click the app launcher button in the top-left corner.
3. Click on Calendar.

4. Click the New event button from the toolbar.

5. (Optional) Click the expand button in the top-right corner of the event to access the full view.
6. Select the "Out of Office" option in the "Event" toolbar.
7. Select the calendar (for example, "Work") to add the event with the drop-down menu next to the "Save" button.
8. Confirm a descriptive title for the event.
9. Use the Start date picker to select the day you leave work.
10. Turn on the "All day" toggle switch.
11. Select the Custom option for the number of days.
12. Use the End date picker to select the day you will return to work.

13. (Optional) Create a custom message for anyone who will see your event.
14. Click the Save button in the top-left corner.

After completing the steps, those with access to the calendar, whether they use Outlook.com or a supported email client, will see you're in vacation.

How to create an 'Out of Office' calendar event from new Outlook app

If you have switched to the new Outlook app for Windows 11 (with or without a Microsoft 365 subscription), the new experience also includes the ability to create an out-of-office calendar event.

To create a calendar event on the new Outlook app, use these steps:

1. Open Outlook app.
2. Click on Calendar from the left navigation pane.
3. Click the New event button from the toolbar.

4. Select the "Out of office" option from the "Event" toolbar.
5. Select the calendar (for example, "Work") to add the event with the drop-down menu next to the "Save" button.
6. Confirm a descriptive title for the event.
7. Use the Start date picker to select the day you leave work.
8. Turn on the "All day" toggle switch.
9. Select the Custom option for the number of days.
10. Use the End date picker to select the day you will return to work.
11. (Optional) Create a custom message for anyone who will see your event.

13. Click the Save button in the top-left corner.

After you complete the steps, people with access to the calendar will be able to notice you will be out of reach for some time.

More resources

For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10 and Windows 11, visit the following resources:

• Windows 11 on Windows Central — All you need to know
• Windows 10 on Windows Central — All you need to know

Sit in my DeLorean, and let me take you for a ride. It is the summer of 2005, and Zimbra Collaboration Suite was just released. It promises to migrate your Microsoft Exchange-powered e-mail and calendar to more affordable server software while maintaining compatibility. Microsoft Exchange is very important in business, and many companies default to it. Many companies don't trust external servers (cloud services), and they have it as company policy to host all servers on-premise. But sometimes expenses are optimized, and compromises are being made. I say compromise because Zimbra doesn't really have an answer to Microsoft Outlook, so although you might have saved money by switching Microsoft Exchange Server with Zimbra, you still need to purchase Microsoft Office or Microsoft 365 to get access to Microsoft Outlook desktop software which all your users come to expect on their computers.

I have been working with system integrator companies for 20 years, and in all my professional life, I have seen sys admins attempting to replace Microsoft Outlook, and failing, so many times that I have lost count. The key takeaway is that users are used to it. They do not want an alternative, which places Microsoft in a cozy position. 

There was no competition until now.

Microsoft recently started replacing the Windows built-in Mail and Calendar apps with the New Outlook app, which we previously reported on under the codename 'Project Monarch.' The New Outlook app is essentially the web version hosted on outlook.com. It packs the web code into a desktop installable format and runs on the Edge WebView 2 engine. 

The good thing is that Windows Mail and Callendar are neglected and terrible apps, so replacing them with anything actively maintained is a good thing.

But sometime in April 2023, Microsoft started pushing an option to Microsoft 365 users to switch their desktop Outlook programs to the New Outlook as well. This has been optional for Insiders for a while, but now everyone gets a taste of the New Outlook. One of the key benefits appears to be full support for 3rd party e-mail and calendars, such as the very popular GMail. No doubt that many home users will welcome this option, but if Microsoft 365, which shares its code base with perpetually licensed Microsoft Office packages, loses Outlook, this will be one less reason for Microsoft to keep improving it. 

I would not be surprised if the next version of Microsoft Office will no longer have the desktop Outlook program bundled.

One of the bigger reasons replacing the traditional desktop Outlook is a bad idea is that the new one doesn't support on-premise Microsoft Exchange. The other one is the story above. Users don't want change, and businesses might stop purchasing newer versions of Microsoft Office if it doesn't come bundled with traditional Outlook.

From our reporting, we understand Microsoft's long-term goal is to replace all the Outlook clients (Outlook Web, Outlook (Win32) for Windows, Outlook for Mac, and Mail & Calendar on Windows 10) with this one WebView 2 version. But how Microsoft gets to feature-completeness for longtime Outlook desktop users could be a bumpy ride, akin to Microsoft's confusing OneNote strategy (which is now back on the right track). 

Let's hope it gets this strategy right. At least for now, it's a good thing the new Outlook client is only an option.

What you need to know

• Microsoft details that the Office 365 disruptions experienced by users earlier this month were as a result of a DDoS attack.
• A group of hackers referred to as Anonymous Sudan that are believed to be Russian have taken credit for the attack.
• It's not yet confirmed whether Microsoft has fully resolved the issue.

At the beginning of this month, several reports surfaced online across various social media platforms by users expressing their frustrations over Office 365 disruptions, peaking at over 18,000 users. 

Microsoft later confirmed that the disruption was widespread across most platforms, including Outlook, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online, and OneDrive for Business. Even the company's cloud computing platform, Azure experienced disruptions.

And now, according to a blog post by The Associated Press (AP), Microsoft narrowed down the issue to a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack.

Microsoft didn't disclose whether it has completely resolved the issues but went on to provide details revolving around the attack alongside ways through which users can avoid failing victims of such an attack again.

To this end, the company hasn't revealed the attack's impact. While speaking to The Associated Press, Jake Williams, a former National Security Agency offensive hacker, cited that it would be impossible to determine the magnitude of damage caused by the attack unless Microsoft reveals the data.

The tech giant believes that Storm-1359 is behind this particular attack. Though a group of attackers that refers to themselves as Anonymous Sudan took to their channel on Telegram to announce that they were behind the hit. The group further detailed that the outage lasted for at least an hour and thirty minutes.

The attackers' campaign mainly targeted Microsoft's OSI layer 7, designed to serve as a layer where apps like OneDrive and Outlook access network services.

Per Microsoft's report, the company believes that the hackers leveraged botnets and tools to deploy attacks on its services. The company believes that the attack was majorly focused on disruption and publicity rather than anything else.

What you need to know

• You can celebrate Pride Month with Microsoft's special theme across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote.
• The theme can also be applied in the Microsoft 365 app.
• Microsoft has also featured five themes in Outlook inspired by Pride, Lesbian, Bi-sexual, Non-binary, and Transgender flags across iOS, Android, and Mac.

June is Pride Month, a special period set aside to celebrate and commemorate the LGBTQIA+ community. And now, aligning with the celebratory mood, Microsoft has announced the release of a special theme across Microsoft 365 apps for Mac and iOS. That is Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and the Microsoft 365 app.

While Microsoft already rolled out a rainbow color scheme to elements of the app, including the mail and home icons to Outlook on iOS and Android, the company is now bringing the "Show your Pride" option to the Mac client.

To change Outlook's theme on your Mac, open Settings and select General. From this point, you'll be able to select whichever theme that resonates with you most. The same can also be replicated on your iPhone or iPad.

The same approach applies across other Microsoft 365 apps. For instance, in Word, click Word, select Preferences in the dialog box, and pick the Show Your Pride option.  

You can also spice up your PowerPoint presentations and Excel apps on iOS and Mac with a touch of Pride.

It's worth noting that this feature is available to users running macOS or iOS in selected markets. Happy Pride Month!!

What you need to know

• Microsoft Teams and Outlook will soon open links from Azure Active Directory accounts and Microsoft accounts in Edge by default, regardless of what your default browser settings.
• Affected links will open in a side-by-side view with the email on one side and the opened webpage on the other.
• The move has drawn criticism from many on Reddit and on the web.

Microsoft will change the default experience for opening certain links within Outlook and Teams. Soon, links from Azure Active Directory (AAD) accounts and Microsoft (MSA) accounts will open in Edge by default (via The Verge). This will occur even if your default browser is set to Chrome, Firefox, or any other non-Edge browser. Opened links will appear in a single view that shows the source email and the opened webpage side-by-side.

A Reddit post by palanerspezi shared a screenshot from the Microsoft 365 Message Center. That message explains the change and when it will roll out. Outlook for Windows will change how it opens links over the next 30 days from the initial message (sent April 29, 2023). Teams will make the same change "at a future date" following another message.

The change does not affect your system's default browser settings. It simply bypasses them when opening certain links in specific situations.

It will be possible to revert the behavior, according to Microsoft:

"To open web links from the Outlook for Windows app using the system default browser (current default behavior): Enable the policy and select 'system default browser' from the policy options."

The company notes that users will not be able to disable or change the setting, so IT admins will have to step in.

Windows Central take

It's clear that the folks at Microsoft will continue doing things like this until someone stops them. The tech giant has pushed Edge through widgets on Windows 11 as well as search. While Windows 11 has default browser settings, Microsoft chooses to ignore them when it sees fit. The company does it in the name of what it claims is a better overall experience, but that doesn't change the fact that the company is ignoring user choices.

Microsoft shared a blog post titled "A principled approach to app pinning and app defaults in Windows" in March of this year. In it, the company committed to the following (emphasis added):

• We will ensure people who use Windows are in control of changes to their pins and their defaults.
• We will provide a common supported way for application developers to offer the ability to make their app the default or pin their app to the taskbar. This will provide users a consistent experience across all apps.
• Microsoft apps will use the same common supported methods for pinning and defaults.

I guess that blog post wasn't sent throughout the entire company.

EdgeDeflector once worked around Microsoft's tactics by intercepting links and opening them in your default browser of choice. Microsoft blocked EdgeDeflector, however back in November 2021.

Google Chrome once had a button that let you set the browser as your default on Windows with a single click. That reportedly had to be disabled after a change Microsoft made through a Windows update in April 2023 (via Gizmodo).

I understand that Microsoft wants people to use Edge. I have four versions of the browser installed on my PC and use Edge as my daily browser. But ignoring default browser settings isn't the way to convert people, at least not if you respect people's choices and value user experience.

What you need to know

• Microsoft is rolling out new updates to its Outlook for Windows app.
• The app now supports Gmail accounts, with Yahoo and iCloud coming soon.
• Microsoft Editor is now also available when writing emails.

Microsoft has announced a handful of new features and updates that are now rolling out for users that are testing the new Outlook for Windows app. Today's updates introduce support for third-party Gmail accounts, including full support for Gmail calendar and contacts.

Being able to sign in to the new Outlook app with Gmail is a big milestone, as it's the first real step towards supporting third-party accounts. Until now, the new Outlook for Windows app has only supported Microsoft personal and work accounts. 

The company says support for other third-party email services, such as Yahoo and iCloud, will be coming in the future. Other new additions in Outlook for Windows today include built-in Microsoft Editor support when writing emails, polls within emails, delay sending emails, and more.

Here's a rundown of the new features:

• Rich editing, spelling, and auto complete suggestions powered by Microsoft Editor. 
• The ability to send emails with polls to help make decisions quicker. (Work and School accounts only) 
• Delay the delivery of an email for up to 10 seconds so you have a chance to “undo” sending – always an excellent feature if you have a typo or accidentally forgot someone on an  email – or just want to make a few quick changes. 
• The ability to join a Skype or Teams call directly from the new Outlook for Windows. 
• The ability to pin important emails to the top of your inbox – helping ensure you don’t forget to follow up on those most important messages.
• Google calendar support
• The ability to add multiple shared calendars
• Supporting multiple time zones
• Adding daily weather in Calendar view

Microsoft has also listed some features that are coming soon, including more visual and personalization options, a new calendar UI, offline support, and native ICS file type support. 

The Outlook for Windows app is currently in preview and is available as an A/B test for Windows Insiders currently. To see if you're eligible for the new Outlook app, head to the Windows Mail app, and if there's a "Try the new Outlook" toggle in the top right, you can enable it now.

What you need to know

• Microsoft has unveiled new AI capabilities coming to Office 365 at an event.
• Microsoft calls this AI "Copilot," and it will make writing Word documents easier.
• With user input, you can ask Word to generate entire texts based on your own requirements.

Microsoft has announced that it's bringing AI to all its Office applications, including Word via a new "Copilot" feature that can generate texts based on user prompts using natural language. You can ask Word to help with creating a report on a certain topic, and even point to offline source material such as other documents on your computer.

Once Copilot generates text, the user has the choice to edit it, including using the AI to rewrite certain parts in a different tone or context, or discard it completely. The AI can also do formatting, meaning users with only basic Word knowledge will be able to create more advanced layouts thanks to AI. 

Copilot can even review documents, including spelling, punctuation, and even offer suggestions and changes based on your own likes and dislikes. The design of Copilot means it should make writing and editing Word documents much faster. 

Here's how Microsoft describes Copilot for Word:

"Copilot in Word writes, edits, summarizes, and creates right alongside you. With only a brief prompt, Copilot in Word will create a first draft for you, bringing in information from across your organization as needed. Copilot can add content to existing documents, summarize text, and rewrite sections or the entire document to make it more concise. You can even get suggested tones—from professional to passionate and casual to thankful—to help you strike the right note. Copilot can also help you improve your writing with suggestions that strengthen your arguments or smooth inconsistencies."

AI coming to Word is just one part of today's announcements from Microsoft. Copilot is coming to all Office apps, including PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook. Use it to reply to emails, organize data in a speadsheet, or design a presentation based on a recent essay you wrote. It can do it all.

Microsoft says AI functionality in Word will roll out over the coming months, and is in limited testing "20 customers," likely to be enterprise customers, right now.

What you need to know

• Microsoft has announced that it's bringing AI to Outlook.
• The new AI functionality exists in the form of a "copilot" that can help with replying to messages.
• The AI is smart enough to analyse email content and generate a response based on what the user asks for.

Microsoft has announced several new AI capabilities coming to Microsoft 365, including a new AI Copilot feature for Outlook that will be able to analyse and generate responses to emails, based on requests outlined by the user. No longer will you need to write out long emails, as Copilot for Outlook can do it all for you.

In the example posed by Microsoft, a user asks Copilot to reply to an email with approval, while also highlighting key risks from a document that Copilot is able to source by simply mentioning the file name. Copilot then does the rest, including reading the original email for context, then the document, and then writing up a reply with those detailed highlighted.

This is how Microsoft describes Copilot for Outlook:

"Copilot in Outlook works with you in your inbox and messages so that you can spend less time on email triage and more time on communicating—better, faster, and more easily. Summarize lengthy, convoluted email threads with multiple people to understand not only what has been said, but the different viewpoints of each person and the open questions that have yet to be answered. Respond to an existing email with a simple prompt or turn quick notes into crisp, professional messages—pulling from other emails or content that you already have access to from across Microsoft 365."

Microsoft has also announced Copilot for a number of other Office applications, including Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. Copilot functions similarly across each application, with the ability to use natural language to ask each app to generate content based on parameters detailed by the user.

Being able to ask Copilot to source additional files also adds to the power of this AI, as it will be able to include context from files that may not be sourced on the internet. This will be excellent for referring to internal data at work.

AI functionality in Outlook is currently being previewed with a select group of Microsoft 365 customers, and will roll out more broadly over the coming months.

What you need to know

• Microsoft has been working on a unified Outlook that will work across PC and Mac.
• This web-based Outlook has been available for Office Insiders since 2022, but it will roll out to other Current Channel users starting in April.
• Personal accounts and Exchange Online accounts will be some of the first to gain access.
• Additional account types will gain support for web-based Outlook later on. 

Back in 2021, Microsoft revealed that it would be making a new Outlook app for Windows and Mac that would be powered by the web. The idea being to evolve the already existing Outlook Web variants into a single personal information management system that can be used across PC and Mac — also known as "One Outlook." 

This new unified Outlook has been available to Office Insiders as far back as May 2022. But now, it looks like Microsoft plans to start rolling it out to a wider audience starting early April (thanks, Petri). To be specific, access will first roll out to Current Channel users with personal Microsoft accounts and Exchange Online accounts. However, the web-based Outlook will not come to Microsoft 365 subscribers.

Microsoft explained in the 365 Admin Center that, "with a wealth of feedback from these early adopters, we are excited to expand access to users in Current Channel. The experience is an option to try, and nothing will change without end users taking action. We will give notice before any required changes occur, after the preview has received sufficient usage and feedback."

More about One Outlook

One Outlook is not only an evolved version of Outlook that can be used across platforms, but it also provides brand-new features. For instance, Microsoft Loop integration allows Office accounts to collaborate on projects more easily. Additionally, being connected to the cloud allows unified Outlook to easily attach files to emails simply by typing @ plus the file names into the email.

Better integration doesn't stop there. Web-based Outlook also allows users to quickly turn emails into calendar events and view any notes alongside the calendar. Gaining access to these many features will undoubtedly add more conveniences for current Outlook users.

Those interested can download the new Outlook for Windows (preview) from the link below, which became available in the Microsoft Store a few weeks ago.

What you need to know

• Microsoft Outlook for Mac is now free for all users.
• Outlook for Mac supports a variety of email accounts, including Outlook.com, Gmail, and iCloud.
• A redesigned version of Outlook rolled out to macOS in 2020.

Outlook for Mac is now free for all users, including those using the app at home, work, or school. The email client no longer requires a Microsoft 365 subscription or license. Microsoft announced the news in a Tech Community post and highlighted some of the features available for Outlook for Mac.

Outlook.com, Gmail, iCloud, and Yahoo accounts are all supported on Outlook for Mac, as are any accounts that use IMAP. Users can view emails from different accounts in a unified inbox if they'd like.

Outlook for Mac is optimized for Apple Silicon and integrates with Apple's ecosystem in other ways. The app supports widgets on the desktop and will soon show calendar events in the Menu Bar. Apple's Handoff feature is also supported by Outlook, allowing people to continue emails on their iOS devices that they began on their Mac.

While Microsoft is transitioning Outlook for Windows to a Progressive Web App, the company has no plans to do so on macOS.

"The new Outlook for Mac is a native macOS app. Microsoft plans to continue building and maintaining best-in-class native apps on macOS and iOS. No Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are planned for Mac Outlook," said Partner Product Group Manager for Outlook Michael Palermiti to The Verge.

Outlook may not be moving to a PWA, but Microsoft has more features planned for the email client. "There is more to do and many more features we are excited to bring to the Outlook Mac experience,” said Product Manager for Outlook for Mac Jeremy Perdue to The Verge. “We are rebuilding Outlook for Mac from the ground up to be faster, more reliable, and to be an Outlook for everyone.”

Update: February 21 at 7:55 AM ET

The Microsoft Service Status page states that Outlook should be working as usual. The original article follows.

What you need to know

• Microsoft Outlook's spam filters stopped working for many people this morning.
• Users affected by the issue are receiving many or all spam messages in their main inbox at the moment.
• Microsoft has not commented on the issue at this time, but the bug appears to be affecting several users across Europe.

Microsoft Outlook has an issue right now that results in spam messages making their way into people's personal inboxes. Many have run into the bug, including myself and many others across Europe (via The Verge). Filters appear to have been shut off entirely, with malicious and unwanted messages getting through.

Outlook has a poor reputation regarding filtering spam, but the messages that have made their way through filters are particularly egregious. A quick glance at some of the inboxes shared on Twitter (1, 2, 3) shows emails that are clearly spam.

Twitter user Kristian Chelminski said that they've seem more span in their inbox for several days.

Reports so far suggest that the issue is limited to Outlook personal accounts, but the extent of the bug is not clear at this time.

Microsoft has not shared a statement on why spam emails are going unfiltered into people's inboxes.

Windows Central take

Outlook is a fine email client and tool for managing your schedule, but its weak spot has always been spam filtering. I use Outlook daily, and the service often fails to filter spam messages while unnecessarily filtering genuine communication from friends and colleagues.

Spam emails aren't just annoying, they're also dangerous. People fall prey to email scams all the time. Users may have a false sense of security that Outlook will filter out malicious messages, so today's surge in unfiltered emails could cause significant harm.

While hiccups and bugs happen to services occasionally, today's filtering problem may be the final straw for some people.

Across the lands of Microsoft and Windows, dozens of news stories go across our desk each week. We cover games, gadgets, software, and more, but it's easy for people to miss out on a few stories. That's why every week we round up the biggest pieces of news from the industry into one bite-size piece.

Windows 11 bug affecting PC gaming

Microsoft confirmed that a GPU bug in Windows 11 version 22H2 is lowering gaming performance on some systems. As a result, the company placed a compatibility hold on affected devices, preventing them from receiving or installing the update.

"Some games and apps might experience lower than expected performance or stuttering on Windows 11, version 22H2. Affected games and apps are inadvertently enabling GPU performance debugging features not meant to be used by consumers," said Microsoft.

While the tech giant looks for a permanent fix, there is a workaround for the issue:

"If you are already on Windows 11, version 22H2 and are experiencing this issue, you might be able to resolve it by updating your games and gaming related apps to the latest version available."

Microsoft cutting OneDrive & Outlook features

Several changes are on the way to OneDrive and Outlook over the next few months. Microsoft explained that Microsoft 365 subscribers will no longer be able to create personalized email addresses for their Outlook inbox (such as yourname@example.com). Additionally, the company announced that Outlook attachments will count against OneDrive storage limits. As a result, some people may need to delete emails to make space.

To ease the transition, Microsoft will provide at least an extra 50 GB of cloud storage for one year starting on February 2, 2023. During that time, people may need to delete larger emails or clear out older messages from their inbox.

Surface Pro 9 repairability

Surface devices have a poor reputation when it comes to repairability. Microsoft improved this some with the Surface Pro 8 and other devices from its last generation, but the company took a major leap with the Surface Pro 9. Things are so much better that iFixit called the Surface Pro 9 the "most repairable" Surface Pro it's ever seen.

A few changes helped the Surface Pro 9 earn a 7/10 from iFixit, such as its battery being secured with screws rather than glue. The PC's screen has a bit of flex, making the display easier to remove as well. The Surface Pro 9 also has an SSD that can be swapped out with ease.

iFixit explained that the score of the Surface Pro 9 will likely go up when repair manuals and spare parts are available, both of which Microsoft has promised to deliver.

Microsoft Teams speed improvements

While the actual improvements rolled out before last week, Microsoft highlighted performance improvements for Teams recently. Navigation in several key areas improved, including moving between chats, channels, and threads.

Microsoft has improved the performance of Teams steadily over the years but made a major jump in November 2022. A framework upgrade on the platform was the main force behind the improvement.

"The most common action for a user in Teams is to switch between different chats, channels, and activity feeds," said Microsoft Principal Group Program Manager for Microsoft Teams Jeff Chen. "Over the past two years, switching between chat threads is now 32% faster, switching between channels is 39% faster. This leads to a more fluid experience that will keep you in the flow."

Microsoft Create in testing

Microsoft announced its new Create platform in October. Now, the site is available for testing. Microsoft Create brings together multiple services, including Word, PowerPoint, and Clipchamp. It provides shortcuts to creating content and includes templates for a variety of services.

Review roundup

From gamers on the go to germ-conscious laptop shoppers, our experts looked at a broad range of devices this week.

• ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 SE review: The best gaming laptop to buy this year
• Lenovo ThinkBook 16p (Gen 3) review: Well-built and powerful, but nothing that sets it apart from other creator laptops
• ASUS TUF Gaming X670E-Plus WiFi review: Solid specs and value for AMD Ryzen 7000
• Corsair Katar Elite wireless mouse review: Comfortable gaming with a compact construction
• Lenovo ThinkBook 13s (Gen 4) review: A competent, compact, and affordable laptop for business
• Asus Vivobook S 14 Flip review: A solid mid-range laptop made for germaphobes
• Cooler Master CK720 mechanical keyboard review: Hot-swappable switches for everyone
• Razer Naga V2 Pro review: The most versatile gaming mouse just got even better

What you need to know

• Microsoft just announced several changes that will remove features or affect the functionality of Outlook and OneDrive.
• Microsoft 365 subscribers will no longer be able to have personalized email addresses attached to their Outlook.com inbox.
• Outlook attachments will soon count against your OneDrive storage data limit, which could force people to delete larger emails.
• Microsoft will add at least 50 GB of extra storage to Outlook for one year to help people transition.

Microsoft recently announced significant changes to Outlook and OneDrive that will reduce functionality of both services in certain areas. Starting on November 30, 2023, Microsoft 365 subscribers will no longer be able to associate a new personalized email address with an Outlook.com mailbox. On February 2, 2023, Outlook.com attachments will start counting against a person's OneDrive data cap. Microsoft sent out details about the changes this morning.

Personalized email addresses are custom addresses with a format like yourname@example.com. Any emails sent to the personalized email address appear in the same inbox as the normal address associated with the account. The main benefit is that a person can make the suffix of the email address whatever they'd like, such as a community group or another name.

If you already have a personalized email address, it will continue to work after November 30, 2023. The change only affects the ability to associate new personalized email addresses. If, however, you remove an existing personalized email address after the cutoff date, you will not be able to add it back.

The change to cloud storage will likely affect more Microsoft 365 subscribers than the personalized email change. Up to this point, Outlook.com attachments have not counted against OneDrive storage limits. With that changing as of February 2, 2023, some people may have to delete older emails.

If you often send larger files or keep thousands of emails in your inbox, you may have to clear up some space. To help ease the transition, Microsoft will provide at least an extra 50 GB of cloud storage for one year starting on February 2, 2023. That period should give people enough time to organize their files accordingly.