back to article Outlook is poor for those still on Windows Mail, Calendar, People apps by end of year

Microsoft is preparing to kill off the old Windows Mail, Calendar, and People apps by the end of this month and shift users to the Outlook for Windows app. In November, Microsoft confirmed there would be no reprieve for the apps. It will be possible to export local emails, calendar events, and contacts that users have stored …

  1. hitmouse

    New Outlook is buggy as hell, and missing features from "Old" Outlook that are routinely used in corporate environments. While Microsoft has a schedule to migrate people, it has no roadmap to address any of the problems that need to be overcome to get there.

    Very tired of getting incorrect reminders for recurring meetings, where you get a notification for a past meeting but not for the current meeting, which is at a different time. And that's just the beginning.

    1. Alan Bourke

      No meaningful automation options

      ... so your desktop apps that automate it to send emails are screwed.

      1. Strahd Ivarius Silver badge
        Devil

        Re: No meaningful automation options

        The only compelling reason to go to the New Outlook!

        Any automation needs to be under the control of the IT department!

    2. ITMA Silver badge
      Devil

      I think this "misconception" from Microsoft's crap communication is part of the problem.

      "New" Outlook is - for the moment at least - a replacement for the "consumer/home user" Windows Mail client and associated apps.

      Microsoft may well want it to repalce the full "Classic" Outlook (the one used in corporate environments) but it is nothing but a pale, shite, bug ridden lookalike.

      Yes I know it has the "Try New Outlook" switch in the "proper" Outlook. But avoid it like the plague as it NOTHING like the proper Outlook.

      1. J. Cook Silver badge

        I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the prompt for the "try the new outlook" in the actual Outlook application is referring to the O365 client if you are still using anything between Office 2010 and office 2019.

        1. Andrew Scott Bronze badge

          No, have the desktop app for office 365 and there's a switch on the upper right corner of the outlook window that says "Try the new outlook". Under certain circumstances like a fresh install you will get switched to the New outlook. when you switch back you will get a survey asking why you didn't switch. Mostly because i wasn't asked if i wanted to switch. that irritates me. The mac new outlook is really bad, and i know a lot of people who are usually fine with the latest update who have no intention of using the New outlook on a mac. It just changes too many things that they like. Further, those machines that have the old 2019 or 2010 versions of outlook will find that they won't work with the most recent versions of the mac os and windows os.

          1. ITMA Silver badge
            Devil

            Likewise.

            I was referring to the O365 "proper" version of Outlook.

            Microsoft® Outlook® for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2410 Build 16.0.18129.20158) 64-bit

            That absolutely DOES have the garbage "Try the new Outlook" swtich in the top right corner.

          2. JT_3K
            WTF?

            Or namely because it can't "do" shared mailboxes.

            I mean, it's not like that's an organisational basic staple that any mug who's used/maintained email in any organisation for any length of time could have told you was a pre-req, rite?

            1. Ragarath

              What?

              I switch to it from time to time to see how it's doing. It used to not be able to do shared mailboxes, but it can now, and I think in a way I prefer to the old method too.

              There is a lot of other stuff that prevents me from changing to it though.

            2. Strahd Ivarius Silver badge
              Trollface

              The "new" Outlook works as the web application (it is only a desktop version of it), where shared mailboxes are available.

              So, ask Copilot 365 how to add it!

    3. 0laf Silver badge
      Devil

      It is a PoS and has been for years, but now it's shittier.

      Yet again MS moves everything around and hides options for reasons known only to itself.

      I like my buttons and switches to stay where I bloody put them.

      1. 0laf Silver badge

        And the worst feckin thing so far is a small one, but they've changed the spellcheck from a right click context option to a left click, but it's still right click in every other application.

        I've had 30yr of right click for context so in what fecking world is it a good idea to change it randomly in one albeit popular application?

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      It's crap, utterly crap.

      Missing a bunch of features we use for security and email encryption, signing etc.

  2. Old Man Ted

    It now looks like the MS/Intel market is coming to an end. All monopolies have a very finite life and their falls are usually caused by greed.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      And the replacements are:

      - macOS - aarch64 build full of DRM. Weak backwards compatibility support. Single hardware vendor.

      - Linux - A sticky mess of freeware and everything smells like wee. Even the RHEL GUI NetworkManager was broken until recently in how it disabled ipv6.

      - FreeBSD - Non-guaranteed hardware support for < 3 year old devices, swayed by two commercial companies (iX and Klara) doing dumb things

      - OpenBSD - Guaranteed hardware support. Guaranteed to not fully work

      My money is on OpenBSD but I must admit, Microsoft is crazy if they don't want to easily continue to fill the niche of "the people's operating system".

      1. wolfetone Silver badge

        Yet none of them ever piss off their users.

        It just seems the Microsoft luddites don't want something that works. They want something they can continually bitch and moan about while using it as an excuse to not get work done.

        1. Adair Silver badge

          And MS buys into their need wholesale, at a price they just can't bring themselves to refuse.

        2. LVPC

          If its always screwed up, it gives a way better excuse than "the dog are my homework" . It also creates work for people in support. Same as Windows in general.

          Of course, you can always switch to thunderbird for email, and a tablet for both email and calendar, text messaging for text nessages, FaceTime for one one one video meetings, and just ignore the other make-work crapware. (Posted from a cheapie tablet).

        3. 0laf Silver badge
          Trollface

          MS is a business. If it gave the people what they actually wanted it would be a secure internet capable version of W98SE running Office 97*.

          But they have to keep making big changes to justify the prices they charge or the accusation would be "why am I paying £500 for a minor upgrade to Office 97?".

          Also they've looked at Google and decided that data theft is the best business model so they change products in order to facilitate that.

          *I'd comfortably accept that people might rather thave W2000 or XP

        4. collinsl Silver badge

          Yet none of them ever piss off their users.

          You've never seen a Gnome development forum then...

      2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Windows, meanwhile, continues to smell increasingly strongly of 3-day old sewage.

  3. AlanSh

    There are alternatives

    If you only have one or two email addresses, then EMClient is probably as good as it gets for free alternatives.

    Alan

    1. Anonymous Coward Silver badge
      Thumb Down

      Re: There are alternatives

      Not if you have your own domain though - they refuse to believe that a domain can be for home use and thus insist on business licensing for it.

      Yes, I am bitter. No, I won't give them another chance now they've shown their true colours.

      1. Aging Hippy
        Stop

        Re: There are alternatives

        eM Client doesn't care about domain names as it is a client that connects to your chosen servers (2 in the free version). Also you can have as many aliases as you want. Are you confusing this with the new Outlook which is phasing out allowing your own domain name unless you buy it from Godaddy.(sorry for the foul language).

        1. LVPC

          Re: There are alternatives

          A cheap Amazon tablet works great for email - I have my 8 domains email on it, and a combined inbox for seeing all the (mostly spam) emails at once.

          Half decent web browser, and I ignore the rest. Cheap, simple, fast - for once I can have all three.

        2. Anonymous Coward Silver badge
          Unhappy

          Re: There are alternatives

          The eMclient software doesn't care what address you use, but their licensing department does. After a few months they come at you with "it looks like you're using this for business. Pay up" - I've had several clients suffer that, despite their domains being some variation of their full name and genuinely not for business use.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: There are alternatives

      I have been using Thunderbird pretty much since Eudora was killed off in the Dark Ages. It does also handles Google Calendar well, although then Google knows your business. The only thing I use Outlook (classic) for on non-employer PC's is for handling contacts & synchronizing them with Android. But that's mostly due to my own inertia, as there are a lot for options for that.

  4. workrabbit

    Sugar not Stevia

    Fine for a new Outlook which has bits and pieces from the Windows 95 Exchange and Schedule+ clients. But can it please be a real RibbonUX application and not some sort of pretend affair?

  5. iam_sysop

    Missing an important detail --

    New Outlook proxies every single mail request through Microsoft servers.

    The "old apps" did not do this.

    This is why MS is forcing the change -- it's all about the data. It's all about the harvesting.

    -- and of course they say "includes AI" - so that rightly tells you what's REALLY happening...

    1. Guy de Loimbard Silver badge

      Re: Missing an important detail --

      "New Outlook proxies every single mail request through Microsoft servers."

      That's going to prove interesting. Better not be scraping content for AI..... Can of worms at the ready!

  6. Terry 6 Silver badge

    As noted

    Thunderbird provides mail client, calendar and even a todo thingy (I assume people use these, though I've never met anyone who does). Betterbird is a fork, which does things, err, better .

    Does Microsoft's offering have anything that TB doesn't?

    And there's also ProtonMail - which is specifically privacy focussed and has a good free tier. That has calendar and stuff too.

    1. IGotOut Silver badge

      Re: As noted

      Another for Proton. Been using it since it was Beta.

      Free you can get Mail, Calendar, Pass and VPN (maybe more, not checked)

      And it just works.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: As noted

      Tbird slows down like a mofo any time your mailboxes start getting big. On the other hand, Outlook's search simply doesn't work. Pick your slow death.

      1. JimboSmith

        Re: As noted

        Tbird slows down like a mofo any time your mailboxes start getting big. On the other hand, Outlook's search simply doesn't work. Pick your slow death.

        Could not agree more about outlook search being crap. When I try and do a search the first thing it does is say that it’s having trouble contacting to the server despite the fact that it’s connected to our work network fine. Then it gives me this message “Let's look on your computer instead” which is pointless as I don’t store any emails there. If I stop the search and then run it again it works fine on the second attempt.

        Also why when I search a shared mailbox does the search default automatically to all mailboxes? i don’t want to search all makl boxen just the shared one but every time it deafaukts to that. Now if I search my inbox then it’s just searching that one. I’ve changed the search options in settings and it doesn’t do anything which is annoying. The more annoying thing is in the new look outlook it doesn’t/didn’t have the all mailboxes option. Problem is I thought the new look outlook was so awful as a GUI that I reverted it back shortly after trying it.

        1. Snake Silver badge

          Re: Thunderbird search

          Wait, there are people who think that TB's search works? o_O TB's search seems as bad as your description of Outlook's, and their recent change in operation made things worse not better. *IF* I'm willing to wait for the responses TB's search may work. Sometimes.

          1. J. Cook Silver badge

            Re: Thunderbird search

            Indeed; my searches are generally "from X" or words in the subject line, and it fails pretty miserably on it.

            Corporate Outlook (The O365 client specifically) is not much better. Older versions used the search indexer built into Windows, which meant that if you had email cached locally AND the indexer had run through it AND the moon was in the 7th house, then it MIGHT work. /snark

            But if you are using Exchange Online and running in non-cached mode? Good luck and god speed.

      2. de-em

        Re: As noted

        For Thunderbird, try excluding the Thunderbird.exe file and the profiles folder (C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird) for virus scanning, as it's probably that that's slowing things down.

        You can keep things secure by going to Privacy & Security, Security section, Antivirus, then tick 'Allow anti-virus clients to quarantine individual incoming messages' (which temporarily saves email contents to your temp folder for AV scanning).

        1. David 132 Silver badge

          Re: As noted

          Seconded. Thunderbird was unusably slow on my PC (as in,even typing an e-mail address in the TO: field of a new mail would be p.. a... i...nfu... l... l... y laggy, like running Windows 95 on a system with 4MB of memory).

          I first paused Defender, and then, encouraged at the result, excluded TB from its scans. Things are much better now.

      3. Adair Silver badge

        Re: As noted

        Can't say I've noticed any obvious search slowdown, but maybe depends on what 'getting big' means. My main Inbox currently registers over 700 messages, but maybe if that was 7,000 or 70,000 things would get a bit grim. I don't know, they get archived after a two month threshold, so things never get that grotesque.

        1. J. Cook Silver badge
          Boffin

          Re: As noted

          *cracks knuckles*

          Thunderbird is my primary mail archive- I have it configured to copy down my messages to local storage, and have done so for the past.... decade or so. My profile is ~ 16 GB, which makes moving it between machine an interesting affair. :)

          The bulk of the archive is in a separate profile folder, and once or twice a year, I spend the hour or so trimming the fat out of the mailbox and moving messages to that archive. it's not fast, but it's solid, and that's what I'm after. Now if search function had a better UI, I'd be super happy with it, but I can't complain about the price at least. :) (that, and It's Not Outlook. :D )

          1. David 132 Silver badge
            Happy

            Re: As noted

            >My profile is ~ 16 GB, which makes moving it between machines an interesting affair.

            The local floppy-disk shop must love you! :)

    3. de-em

      Re: As noted

      Switched over to Thunderbird for work and personal email a few months back, with no regrets (previously was using Outlook for work and web for personal).

      Anyone that last looked at Thunderbird a few years ago, do yourself a favour and check out the latest version - it's a huge improvement.

      1. Terry 6 Silver badge

        Re: As noted

        Though I'd say the Betterbird fork lives up to its name. YMMV

        1. Bitbeisser

          Re: As noted

          > Though I'd say the Betterbird fork lives up to its name. YMMV

          Well, my mileage varies but quite a few nautical miles....

          I tried it for maybe half an hour, then uninstalled it. It wasn't able to properly handle IMAP and changes across multiple devices. This was a year or so ago, so might try to take another look...

          Thunderbird isn't perfect, but I had few of those problems that other reported. And I use it as my main email client, across 3 different OS (Windows, Linux, macOS) on more than half a dozen different hosts...

  7. Bebu sa Ware
    Coat

    "to help you write impactful, clearer, mistake-free messages."

    Hell's Bells what is the C-suite and its manglement minions going to use then?

    Must be a market there for an office suite accurately named Weasel Words (with a search engine call Duck Shover?)

    Of course, silly me, Lookout plus AI is Weasel Words and Duck Shoving in all but name.

    I had never encountered Windows Mail and searching for a description I found a MS with a lot of unhappy campers

    Seems like all the legions MS division of the dark arts patterns have been thrown i to the fray. ;)

    Between the Mail/Outlook enema and Win11 more than one discontented customer is preparing to jump ship and dump the whole shitshow.

    I noticed at least one disgruntled user who had a single windows (employment related) application that prevented his jumping ship. If that app. could be run effectively under Codeweaver's Crossover (essentially Wine with support) I imagine he would be off to saner parts.

    1. LybsterRoy Silver badge

      Re: "to help you write impactful, clearer, mistake-free messages."

      Is this https://www.lookout.com/ the lookout you're referring to?

  8. JWLong Silver badge

    OUTHOUSE(OutLook)

    I, after so many decades of using OutLook(OUTHOUSE) have 100% dropped OutLook and pretty much the entire Office Suit.

    And, I don't fucking miss it at all!

    1. Alan Bourke

      Re: OUTHOUSE(OutLook)

      *Alan Partridge shrugging GIF*

  9. Tubz Silver badge

    We got forced to use the New Outlook and very quickly the howls of complaints made them enable the option to switch back to old Outlook, which is more productive and stable compared to this POS. Microsoft just can't help wanting to fiddle with something that just works and then breaks for the sake of change.

    1. Wade Burchette

      For example, Outlook Express.

      Outlook Express was a very good free email application. It worked well enough for most people. So, naturally, it had to go. The replacement was Windows Mail, a flaming piece of garbage that was confusing to use and confusing to configure. Have you ever tried to change the server settings in Windows Mail? For years I believed that Windows Mail was designed to be horrible so that you will pay for Outlook -- not many people know about Thunderbird or other alternatives. And now the replacement in "new" Outlook. What brain dead idiot thought it was a good idea to have 3 distinct products with the exact same name? The "new" Outlook looks and feels a lot like outlook.com and not at all like the "classic" Outlook. So now when you search for help, you don't know if it is for "new" Outlook, "classic" Outlook, or outlook.com. (This decision must have been by the idiots who thought having two distinct versions of Teams, a business and consumer one, that each work completely different was a good idea. So when you search for help, you don't know if the instructions are for business Teams or consumer Teams.)

      If Microsoft wants to give us a good free email program, bring back Outlook Express and incorporate OAuth2 in it. Simple, cheap, and good for the customer. So, naturally, it won't be done. Microsoft gave up on doing what is best for the customer when Windows 7 expired.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Microsoft naming

        Just try searching for help with Microsoft's latest version of "Remote Desktop", which they've now helpfully renamed as "Windows App".

        It is impossible to get relevant results. Which app for Windows do you need help with? The "Windows App" Windows app.

        1. collinsl Silver badge

          Re: Microsoft naming

          And yet the exe is still "mstsc.exe" as in "Microsoft Terminal Services Client" - just like Skype for Business is still "lync.exe"

      2. Roland6 Silver badge

        >” Microsoft gave up on doing what is best for the customer when Windows 7 expired.”

        The rot had set in much earlier, with the way MS handled the EoL of XP and WS2k3.

      3. Strahd Ivarius Silver badge
        Mushroom

        Some bird (of ill omen for sure) tweeted me that we will have soon an Outlook for Teams...

  10. This post has been deleted by its author

  11. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    One of the arguments often deployed for not switching to Linux is that it doesn't have an application comparable to .... and one of those things it doesn't have an application comparable to is Outlook. Remarkably this is seen as a disadvantage on Linux' part.

    1. Adair Silver badge

      And yet, weirdly, plenty of organisations (commercial and otherwise) manage to run perfectly sane and effective offices based on the Linux software stack.

      Change is a terrible thing, to be resisted at all costs.

      1. Ambivalous Crowboard

        re: sarcasm without contribution

        Seriously though, I just installed RHEL on my laptop, and if there's a good Outlook-like app that handles multiple o365 accounts and calendars & contacts, please do let us all know.

        1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          Re: re: sarcasm without contribution

          You've been locked in and still don't realise where the real problem is?

        2. katrinab Silver badge

          Re: re: sarcasm without contribution

          Evolution?

          Whether it is "good" is a matter of opinion, but it should work.

        3. Terry 6 Silver badge

          Re: re: sarcasm without contribution

          TB

    2. Terry 6 Silver badge

      Full fat Outlook is, as noted, a different product to the other Outlooks. (Fucked if I remember which is which now).. I stayed with that for a long time because TB didn't have a calender option, then only a poor one as an add-in.

      I still miss Outlook's filters. Being able to create a complex filter rule,really easily with a series of steps...e.g.. If Subject contains "Black Friday", does not contain <company name> AND <condition> OR <condition> Move to Junk. TB's rules just don't have that degree of control and ease of creation. Just "Match All" or " Match Any" contains/does not contain <set of conditions>

      1. Bitbeisser

        Sorry, but "Outlook Rules" and "easy of creation" seem rather mutually exclusive.

        I wish Outlook rules could be created as quick as I can create all my necessary rules in T-Bird. And it seems to be getting more and more convoluted with each version of Outlook (currently at work dealing with Outllook 2010, 2019 and 2021)...

    3. Bitbeisser

      One of the arguments often deployed for not switching to Linux is that it doesn't have an application comparable to .... and one of those things it doesn't have an application comparable to is Outlook. Remarkably this is seen as a disadvantage on Linux' part.

      Well, that is only one. And there is some functionality of Outlook (in connection with Exchange) that just isn't available in any free alternative. Like sharing contacts, calendars, across groups in company.

      Or Autodesk AutoCAD/Revit. Or Quickbooks. Or the many, many specialized vertical applications...

      Sure, T-bird and LibreOffice can cover a lot of ground for a vast amount of home users, but unless it is a more lucrative and better supported alternative for business users, you just won't see a larger acceptance overall....

    4. Strahd Ivarius Silver badge

      So this advantage of Windows over other OS will soon disappear...

  12. Ken Smith

    Utter Shambles

    This post has hit a raw nerve as I was banging my head against the shower of nonsense that new Outlook is last week while doing an e-mail migration for a client. They have several folders in New Outlook that, for some reason, won't sync with their existing IMAP service. Easy, set up new e-mail account alongside the old one and drag the few folder over. No way - that feature is not there. Oh and by the way, it won't let me set up both email accounts with the same name, old one alongside new one so, I resorted to subterfuge to make that happen. Export to .pst - nope. ffs. Oh and switch over to Classic Outlook and those folders don't show up either.

    Contacting M'Soft support got this very amusing reply in one of their messages to me "since the new outlook is still under heavy development". And in a forum I found this wording from another M'Soft source "The new Outlook is not yet complete, and some options may not be available or work as expected. Many features of our current products are designed and upgraded based on customers’ feedback." I'll give you feedback alright.....on the other hand I've rather lost hope and will switch my client to Thunderbird.

    So they have inflicted a "lunchtime hack" in their unsuspecting customers. Shocking. I really need to curtail my stream of expletives over this shower of utter garbage waste of disk space.

    And .... Are they really saying that they will kill off Old Outlook. As in revoke, the licences for people who have paid for perpetual versions. Get a grip M'soft.

    I'm so glad that all my production systems are Open Source and I've been using SeaMonkey (cousin of Thunderbird) for well over a decade without any issues at all,.

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: Utter Shambles

      So they have inflicted a "lunchtime hack" in their unsuspecting customers.

      As their customer will lap up all this crud and scarcely ever do anything more than whine about it, why shouldn't they? They're running a large scale experiment in how far they can abuse customers and get away with it. They still haven't found the limits.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Outlook 2007

    continues to run fine on my Windows 7 PC.

  14. cosymart
    Facepalm

    Installing some new PCs. Number one job uninstal newOutlook and install Classic Outlook. There is even a Microsoft provided setup ex file available. Google is your friend in this case.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Google is your friend in this case

      Google may have its uses but it is NEVER your friend*. Act like it is, and you WILL be shafted... and probably sooner than you think.

      * Replying anonymously as, having had to support customers (who might be reading this) who have bought into Google's total wreckage of a shopping system and have had to try to implement interface stuff on websites where Google's constant moving goalposts and permanently beta-level software makes very change** a nightmare, I have nothing but loathing for them and their disgusting crap.

      ** See the documentation, they say. "Which F&^$ing version?" I reply. "The one from 6 months ago that's out of date or the one from 6 days ago which STILL doesn't have any resemblance to actual reality?"

  15. 43300 Silver badge

    I don't really see the retirement of the Windows Mail app as a significant issue. It's a home-user program and has always been crap. New Outlook certainly isn't sparkling it's a bit better than Windows Mail.

    What is more of a problem is the intention to phase out proper Outlook over the next few years. New Outlook is generally tolerable for basic home use, but it's hopeless in a business setting because lots of functionality which businesses do need is simply missing.

  16. grvr

    As one more alternative there's em client. Not affiliated with them... I've just preferred it as a client for many years over the horrors of Outlook.

  17. TheMaskedMan Silver badge

    "After that, however, the ability to send or receive mail will be revoked."

    How?? Aren't they stand alone local applications? I might be wrong about that, as I see very few people who run Mail, and I rarely have anything to do with it.

    Just last week, in fact, one of them asked me to help with a problem switching to New Outlook. He'd got the thing installed, but, despite finding his existing ISP mail account, it wouldn't go any further than that. Buggered if I know why. After a little faffing around I found the manual setup option and just banged in his server details by hand, at which point mail began to flow. Yay.

    While filling in the server details dialog, I noticed that one of the password boxes (SMTP server, I think) had little asterisks in the box, presumably indicating that you're supposed to type something here. The other, incoming server password box didn't have them, which was annoyingly inconsistent. The asterisks aren't the usual faintly greyed out look, either, but fairly dark which, coupled with their absence from the other box, initially caused me to believe that a password was already present. It wasn't, of course, but Iit wasn't obvious from the inconsistent design.

    There was something else misleading in the same dialog, but I can't remember what it was, offhand, but it left me thinking that this newfangled mail app was very rough around the edges. I won't be using it.

    Most domestic users seem happy enough with outlook.com or Gmail, but, since Microsoft have seen fit to impose this dubious software on those who prefer a local client, it would be nice if they finished it before ramming it down hapless users' throats.

    1. Excused Boots Silver badge

      “ …snip…

      but, since Microsoft have seen fit to impose this dubious software on those who prefer a local client, it would be nice if they finished it before ramming it down hapless users' throats.“

      Why yes, yes it would; but this is Microsoft we are talking about, so…..

    2. Terry 6 Silver badge

      Yeah. I have outlook.com for use on my mobile, at least until there's an Apple TB version. With TBSync + "Providor for ActiveSync " to keep all the calendar and contacts stuff across to my PCs. Which is slightly bothering, since relying on a pair of third party add-ons isn't ideal- it's a bit Heath Robinson and also maybe that dev will get bored or retire or something.

  18. Kev99 Silver badge

    I now use the email client my ISP provides, so any version of outlook is a non-starter for me.

    1. ITMA Silver badge
      Devil

      You poor poor man.... Using your ISP's email client....

      1. Strahd Ivarius Silver badge
        Coat

        Especially if it is a rebrand of New Outlook...

  19. Lost in Cyberspace

    Plenty of confused 'home users' here

    We've had dozens - if not 100+ - calls from home users about the forced change to new Outlook (from Mail, Calensar and People). The New Outlook makes pretty much no attempt to actually migrate anything beyond suggesting an email address to sign in to.

    As you can imagine, lots of people don't know their passwords, or even how to reset them. Several others didn't even know what account their calendars and contacts were actually stored in.

    A couple don't remember any passwords at tall, and don't have any recovery details set (Not Microsoft's fault, but they're making it a problem right now). After the transfer, it's game over for checking their emails.

    No local emails, contacts or calendars get transferred, it's very hit and miss about anything from the cloud depending on how cloudy your old setup was.

    If you've got IMAP, fine. POP? Ah, good luck. Google Calendar? Yep, for the most part you'll still have your data. Outlook.com calendars? Err... no. But isn't that a Microsoft product too? Shouldn't that just work? Adverts - yep, let's hope you like dodgy/fake McAfee adverts injected into your inbox.

    So many people have lost data because it hasn't transferred, they don't know where it was really stored. And the real kick in the teeth - MS are now preventing a rollback, even if it's just to check the details.

  20. Roland6 Silver badge

    Why are MS even bundling a mail client with Windows?

    Given the push to MS account, outlook.com and 365 Personal subscription ( which includes full fat Outlook), surely there is little value add to be had with Windows Mail/“new” Outlook.

    1. pdvr

      Re: Why are MS even bundling a mail client with Windows?

      The outlook "application" (which is a web app with some wrapper around it) does sometimes provide a little better integration with the OS, like being able to copy and paste succesfully, or open files. This is very hit and miss, with each new upgrade something stops working (for example, being able to attach a file from a 'most recent used' list doesn't show any files opened by local applications anymore.)

    2. 43300 Silver badge

      Re: Why are MS even bundling a mail client with Windows?

      New Outlook is unfortunately going to replace proper Outlook entirely over the next few years.

      And as regards integration with the OS, proper Outlook does that already in the way that matter.

  21. Blackjack Silver badge

    Is Thunderbird any good?

    1. ComicalEngineer

      As a small business user, yes, Thunderbird is pretty good. I have been using it for over 15 years and it has gradually improved without managing to radically alter [mangle] the interface. I keep emails on my machine and back the files up periodically so I don't lose anything.

      The calendar is ok although I still find "tasks" a bit clunky. I use both the Windows & Linux Mint versions which are pretty much exactly the same.

  22. DoctorNine

    Business opportunity

    After reading all the responses in the comment section, it seems dreadfully obvious that the real barrier to progress, is that there needs to be a corporate-friendly Linux client for email and calendar uses, that can be managed securely like the old Windows Outlook used to do. Whoever does this first, will break the log jam, and the river will run free. So please, friends and neighbors, make it so.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Business opportunity

      And an Excel-like application that handles tables the way Excel does it.

      LibreOffice doesn't, and this is a no-go here.

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