New Outlook for Windows sucks. I tried it a few months ago and it is like a mobile app for idiots. It lacks many settings and many things. It is like windows 11, you need to do extra steps for stuff and settings you want. Also if you have only a standalone office and not a Office365 subscription they have ads, like their mobile app. Fucking Microsoft.
…depending upon the week, somewhere between ⅔ and ⅘ of my workflow can be in outlook…
…our IT policy required a shift to new outlook last year and it devastated my productivity: i struggled against its user-hostile interface for a couple of weeks and eventually just stayed home so i could get work done, despite our back-to-office mandate…in short order i was given an administrator account and i’m back on old outlook again…
Microsoft destroys product names like no other company.
I’ve been paying for Office365 home for years. Recently I started a business and signed up for 365 Business for the company email address.
Outlook stopped working, because the 365 Business account - which I specifically signed up in order to do email - doesn’t include local Outlook, and my existing home-licensed one throws a hissy fit if I try connecting it to my business account.
Microsoft sucks.
I’ve stepped away from Microsoft. Not my favourite company regarding mailing and chatting.
I still think there is a group of people working at microsoft, pulling the strings to dismantle the company from the inside. I haven’t seen an update that makes things better for any of their projects in years
Same with Google.
I imagine Microsoft has the same problem as Google, which is internally prioritizing flashy new things over maintaining useful old things. That’s why Google comes out with so many new things and kills so many old things.
If you want a raise/promotion/etc., you have a better shot at it by bragging about the new feature/service you launched than bragging about maintaining the relatively stable project that’s been running for years but could use some improvements.
It’s a really bad structure imo and I hate that Google and other companies prioritize like that :/
The new M365 Outlook is just webmail. Every upgrade is actually a reduction in functionality as they align to the web version. The good news is this eliminates the need for Windows.
Yes! I’m so close to being able to switch the office PC to Linux. I only really use Outlook and Teams, everything else is in a terminal.
Now to convince Security that I don’t need their intrusive logging and scanning crap…
Outlook and Teams have PWAs that are actually more performant than the desktop apps (anecdotal). They are missing some features, but for the opportunity to use Linux at work, I make it work. Have to use Ubuntu for some unknown reason, but it’s better than using Windows
The good news is that Outlook doesn’t confuse anybody who hasn’t used it in years (or never). Last time I did was when I worked at MS. Hasn’t been a problem since.
In my last job I installed Outlook on my personal phone to access my work calendar conveniently. Found out from a colleague that if the admin for an Outlook server you’re signed into on any device fucks up badly enough you could end up having that device completely wiped so I promptly uninstalled it.
here’s some advice from me. Outlook is completely usable from a web browser. This includes phone browsers… just use that if you need your emails on your personal phone.
Yeah, you’re talking about MDM (Mobile Device Management) solutions/tech. I’m not an IT employee myself, but I am familiar with these things from work (similar situation as yours), and also because I’m a nerd and like researching these things.
On some phones, like Samsung’s (“Secure Folder”), you can have [essentially] a second, containerized instance of Android running. Or you can think of it like a virtual second user that ultimately you have control of. So what I did was install Outlook in that. Because the MDM permissions (e.g. wipe the phone) would only affect that container.
Otherwise, for everyone else – yeah don’t install work apps/accounts on your personal devices.
My understanding is that it’s called work profile. It’s like having 2 users in the same phone. One is personal and you manage it. The other is company owned and you can only install apps whitelisted by your it admin.
I’d love to keep outlook off my personal phone but there’s no chance I’m getting a company phone considering I’m a shop employee and everything in it is an afterthought for IT. Like our computers still run windows 7.
Unfortunately I need email to do my job, on a ping system for what to test and general communications with coworkers who are often not there or traveling in the field.
Just to expand on this. There is an Exchange specific wipe feature. I think it is quite old school and not really used. Have seen it, but never tested it myself. As per documentation it can perform device wipe, but only if native mail client using ActiveSync is used not Outlook. And it probably does not work with all native mail clients, depends if app has device admin permissions.
Current Intune MDM model always uses separate Android storage so any operation including wipe will affect only this storage not your personal space so employer can not see nor delete your personal data.
In Intune there is another option without a need of enrolling device (MDM) where you can manage supported apps. It’s called MAM. If wipe is initiated it affects only data in all apps that support MAM.
In short, companies / schools cannot really wipe your device if we are talking about Intune MDM. Other MDM solutions probably can.
Activesync
Now, that’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time. A long time.
Microsoft anything = confuses people
Hah, I JUST had a conversation with my boss about whether or not I was using the “new” outlook or the “old” outlook.
He’s apparently using the “old” outlook because there’s a toggle switch in the upper right of his window that says “try the new outlook!” and I don’t have that, meaning…I guess I’m using the “new” outlook?
Who knows at this point. It’s all trash.
https://outlook.office365.com/mail/inbox
^ this is the new version lmao. It’s just an electron app (more or less)
My work and my former university uses outlook and Ms apps as their primary line of communication . It’s like the most counterintuitive site there is
OUTLOOK NOT SO GOOD
So, we can expect more security breaches?
Microsoft: Move along … Nothing to see here.
this entire article is about a single tweet some guy made as a joke
Yeah no shit. Then the new ones literally have less features than the old one. Like connecting SharePoint calendars
Windows having Settings and Control Panel. It is just an unmanageable bloat of legacy code.
I use control panel enough that i would be seriously pissed if they removed it. Why is it considered bloat?
Once they drop the real control panel all the useful / advanced configuration will be hidden behind a PowerShell cmdlet you have to Google to find out about! Very streamlined and intuitive.
Settings app: “A network without a gateway? Bullshit mate lemme on the internet.”
It’s utter bollocks. It used to be the OEM crap that had to be removed or clean installed over. Now you have to spend time unfucking fresh installs.
My 11 image is just about usable, but only after a lot of gutting, reg entries, powershell scripts and openshell.
The railroading to sign in with an MS account has become worse too, but still just about bypassable.
Settings is the bloat. Control Panel reigns supreme.
Settings is more accessible to casual users.
Except when the setting they need isn’t in Settings. Then it’s a wild goose chase.
In fact, it’s often a wild goose chase even if it is in Settings, because the question then is where did Microsoft decide to hide it in this most recent update?
The thing everyone misses which was Control Panel’s greatest strength, however, was that vendors could add their own .cpl extensions to it. So settings for your specific hardware could go there. (Yes, this was abused by-and-large by some vendors just like the system tray, but that’s not the point.) Literally all of your settings and configuration stuff could go in one place. Even if a user did not know exactly where, at least they had a consistent place to start looking.
That all ended with Windows 2000/XP and got worse with 8/10/11.
Now we have this:
“I want to change the behavior of Windows feature X.”
Spin the wheel and guess!
- Is it located in Settings?
- Is it located in Control Panel?
- Is there a category in Settings where it totally should be, and any reasonable person would expect it to be, but it’s not there? Surprise! It’s in Control Panel anyway because Microsoft was too lazy to migrate it to Settings.
- Is it in both Settings and Control panel?
- Is it lurking in the Notification Area?
- Or is it hidden in Group Policy Management instead? Oops, too bad you bought the home edition of Windows.
Etc.
Control panel may have been clunky, especially for frequently accessed settings, but at least it was unified.
Also, when you use the built in windows search to search for an installed program, except it doesn’t find it, but gives you web results instead. Microsoft needs to take a seriously massive step back and realise how much they’ve fucked up this basic stuff.
I’m positive that’s deliberate, though, because they’re desperate to drive traffic to Bing by any means necessary.
Fuck. Casual. Users.
Causal users shouldn’t be fucking around in settings since I can attest with factual data that 0% of casual users actually know what the fuck they are doing.
So delete Settings and only allow Control Panel
Half the shit I actually want I just run directly these days, rather than nosing through either.
- ncpa.cpl
- diskmgmt.msc
- devmgmt.msc
- control userpasswords2
- cmd
- mstsc
- regedit
- taskmgr
Just to name a few.
Or having a button to refresh RSS feeds.
Sometimes I think about the billions of dollars of wasted productivity caused by Outlook being so bad at rendering email.
I think every day about the productivity lost because people use Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint. Maybe even multiple times a day.
Word and Powerpoint are not the worst - just think about all the time lost due to whatever Microsoft is doing in Teams or by random decisions like moving the start button to the middle instead of leaving it where it was since 1995, which automatically renders every corporate training video obsolete.
Sure, Teams is horrible - but at least it only affects people who use Teams. Whereas the abysmal UI and worthless templates in MS Word affects every person who has to read anything produced with MS Word too. It’s designed to make documents ugly and hard to read.
