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Outlook Blog

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Embracing the future: Transitioning to new Outlook for Windows

Microsoft

Jun 24, 2025

As technology moves forward, so do the ways we communicate. The world is rapidly changing with cloud computing, hybrid ways of working, and generative AI. To keep up with all these changes, Outlook is getting a makeover too. The updated Outlook for Windows is built to meet the needs of modern email and time management, with agility, consistency, and manageability.

Since I last connected with you in November 2024, Outlook for Windows has evolved rapidly - delivering dozens more capabilities from classic Outlook, key improvements for Shared Mailbox, Offline and PST, and many new experiences to enhance productivity. This update shares examples and details on how Outlook for Windows is:

Agile: Built to be responsive to your emerging needs
Consistent: Streamlined across Windows and web
Manageable for IT: Faster resolutions with less effort

Agility: Built to be responsive to your emerging needs

Every month you will see us deliver top requested capabilities from classic Outlook, new Copilot innovation, and improved stability and performance. Outlook for Windows is packed with capabilities designed to boost your productivity and make your day-to-day tasks easier.

Innovation built in

Outlook for Windows' new agile codebase has made it easier for stability, performance and security by design. We deliver features that were never implemented in classic Outlook. Now, you can enjoy top-requested features in Outlook like pinning important emails, tabbed search to find people, files and Teams messages more easily, iCal sync, scheduled mail, new themes and colored mailbox folders, and more. We've updated meeting experiences to support hybrid and global participation with capabilities such as support for up to 21 time zones and hybrid RSVP, sorting and search for tracking attendees, and the ability to follow meetings to be aware of what happened without needing to attend. These new time management features are ideal for our most dedicated users, including delegates.

New shared mailbox capabilities

We heard you! One of the top experiences we are improving is working with shared mailbox experiences. Outlook for Windows blends classic Outlook capabilities for shared mailboxes with new capabilities to address your long-standing needs.

You can now add shared mailboxes as accounts alongside shared folders. With the new “Shared with me” page you can now view permissions on shared folders or mailboxes to identify and resolve access issues. You can control how the shared mailboxes and folders will be displayed in the Folder pane. The Folder pane also gives a clear visual distinction to shared mailboxes compared to dedicated email accounts, making them easy to access and use throughout your day. More functionality is coming soon, including Archives in shared mailboxes and more (available in Targeted Release and coming to Standard Release in July).

‘Shared with me’ settings in Outlook for Windows and web

Copilot agility

For those aiming to maximize productivity with Copilot, we are adding Copilot features into Outlook every month. With Outlook for Windows' agile codebase, you will find the latest Copilot enhancements first, including the Chat side pane, Summarize, Drafts, Schedule from email, and more. Commercial users will value the new “Prioritize my Inbox” that helps users stay on top of their highest priority mail (rolling out gradually).

Prioritize capabilities in Outlook for Windows and web

Newsletters

Communications through Outlook continue to evolve to meet user needs. The new Outlook Newsletters experience lets you quickly and easily create and send structured, professional, and richly formatted internal email newsletters within Outlook. This capability helps you keep your team informed and engaged. Each newsletter acts as a home for subsequent editions, making it easy to browse past issues and view aggregated analytics across the series. Readers can discover and subscribe to newsletters shared within your organization to stay informed on key topics and projects. While in Public Preview, admins can enable it for some or all users in an organization, and General Availability will follow in a few months. Newsletters are coming to Outlook for Windows and web first, and we plan to bring them to other Outlook clients. Copilot support for Newsletters is on the way, unlocking new ways to create clear and compelling communications with ease.

Newsletters in Outlook for Windows and web

Consistency: Streamlined across Windows and web

The updated Outlook for Windows is all about delivering modern and comprehensive communications and time management experiences. We continue to balance delivering more of your favorite capabilities available in classic Outlook and innovation to meet your needs based on your feedback and requests. In-app feedback and upvoting are key to helping us prioritize what to work on next. For instance, Offline and PST support are top requests, and we have a stream of capabilities rolling out for these critical features, shown below.

Offline capabilities

Outlook for Windows already supports core offline capabilities to read and compose emails and boot while offline. Here’s a look at the latest Offline capabilities including Search (available now), attachments, event creation, updates, deletion, and RSVP (rolling out).

Search email:

Open an attachment:

Create and delete an event:

PST capabilities

For users who store their content in PST mailboxes, we have many recent improvements to share. Now Outlook for Windows supports reply and forwarding emails in the PST, adding PST folders to Favorites, and dragging and dropping emails from the PST to the mailbox (or vice versa).

The ability to export an entire mailbox or set of folders to a PST is now in Targeted Release. Importing from a PST, auto-export (aka auto-archive), people details in Profile cards, and support for read-only Calendar is coming later this year.

Add a PST to Outlook for Windows

Integrations across Windows and Microsoft 365

Outlook is deeply integrated with the Windows operating system to bring functionality that users expect of a rich, native app. This includes opening attachments in the native default app users choose, dragging and dropping attachments to the desktop, windowing, notifications, and more. Outlook for Windows is also seamlessly integrated with Microsoft Teams, without the need to install a separate add-in.

More seamless switching across devices

Outlook users are constantly on the move, switching between different devices and contexts throughout their day. When you add a new device, you do not need to reconfigure your settings. This focus on consistency is something our commercial customers have been asking for, and we're excited about delivering it. Plus, thanks to the common codebase, web users also enjoy most of the innovations and classic capabilities arriving in Outlook for Windows.

Manageability: Faster resolutions with less effort

For IT admins, Outlook for Windows deploys updates similarly to Outlook for web and Microsoft Teams, offering service-backed delivery that ensures predictable changes with Targeted Release and roadmap notifications. This means less time spent on build management. Plus, with changes delivered as a service, you should see a reduction in deployment costs.

Both Outlook for Windows and web use Mailbox policies to manage the client experience. These policies help standardize settings, like attachment settings, for specific groups of users. This means users have a more consistent experience across platforms, as the policies are applied to a user's mailbox. IT admins can learn more about which policies from classic Outlook map to Outlook for Windows policies here and review the new security whitepaper here.

Admins have a growing set of documentation in learn.microsoft.com and adoption.microsoft.com. We're making sure the transition to Outlook for Windows is as smooth as possible with migration aids such as the admin-controlled migration policy and you can now track new and classic Outlook usage in either the M365 or Exchange Admin Centers.

M365 Admin Center with Outlook for Windows and classic Outlook usage reporting

Transition to new Outlook for Windows

The transition to Outlook for Windows is intended to be gradual, allowing you ample time to explore and become comfortable with its new capabilities. We recommend using the toggle in classic Outlook to try the updated Outlook for Windows experience. This will copy your settings, forward your protocols, and provide a welcoming experience. If you encounter a situation where the new Outlook experience lacks a critical function for your workflow, you can easily toggle back to classic Outlook. Don’t forget to provide feedback to let us know what’s missing.

A great way to facilitate the transition is to run Outlook for Windows side-by-side with classic Outlook. However, we encourage you to spend as much time as possible working in the updated Outlook experience. This will help you fully experience its enhanced capabilities and discover new, efficient ways of communicating.

Thousands of organizations have started migration with pilots and are working towards full-scale migration. Many organizations have already migrated, including some very large-scale organizations already surpassing 50% migration to Outlook for Windows. For more details on the timeline: New Outlook: Guide to product availability | Microsoft Learn

What’s next?

We continue to bring more classic capabilities and innovation every month. We encourage you to try the updated Outlook for Windows experience. If a needed capability is missing, let us know. To submit your feedback, go to the Help tab and select Feedback.

You can track the progress we are making through four different resources:

Resource	Description	Location
Microsoft 365 Roadmap	Features that we are rolling out	http://aka.ms/newOutlookRoadmap
Feature Comparison article	Comparison of features across new and classic Outlook	https://aka.ms/newOutlookFeatureComparison
What’s new	A user-focused monthly blog of top capabilities that have been added, also displayed in-app	https://aka.ms/newOutlookWhatsNew
Release notes	Weekly changes including bug fixes, classic capabilities and innovation	https://aka.ms/newOutlookReleaseNotes

Updated Jun 24, 2025

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margieclinton

Microsoft

Joined May 13, 2022

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11 Comments

aliljenberg
Copper Contributor
Jul 01, 2025
does spell check work yet?
Contactchris1
Copper Contributor
Jun 29, 2025
Tried the new Outlook but reverted to the old one as the Quick step shortcut options CTRL + SHIFT + 1 to 4 are no longer available. The only options shown are from 5 to 9. I’ve seen many others comment in forums too that removing ctrl + shift + 1 to 3 options means you can no longer quickly move emails using only one hand. I use this feature more than anything else in Outlook, can’t move over if this is disabled. Hope they fix it.
wroot
Silver Contributor
Jun 28, 2025
Every time you post another article about New Outlook i say "ok, let's give it a try again". So, yesterday i have flipped the toggle and tried to use it for the whole day. Below are some issues i have:
As i expected Reminders popup is still behaving like before, jumping to the front of anything you are doing. Super annoying. I want it to glow in the taskbar and not distract me from my current activity where i have to actively go and minimize/close it. I guess web apps cannot do that.
There are too much space wasted all other the place, i get less content shown to me on the same screen and resolution. Main gripe is Today sidebar which i use to show calendar and upcoming events. On classic Outlook i can see 3-4 days of my events where New only can manage 1-2 days and every entry is so spaced out and color is only showing as outline, so it makes it hard to distinguish between types of events.
I have received suspicious email and wanted to see what URL the links lead to, so i hovered the buttons/links in the email and nothing. No URL showing up anywhere (statusbar or tooltip). How is this better for user security when they cannot even check URLs? Or just for plain troubleshooting.
I wanted to check all of my events/reminders. Which i can do in classic Outlook by switching to the List view. Cannot find anything like that in this New thing.
Pasting links is very annoying. It always tries to present a card, which in 99% i don't want as links are inline with text and showing a big blob of some default site picture is useless and brakes style. Most of the time it struggles to even generate the card and just adds a few lines of space that i then have to go and delete to make email look normal. Super annoying.
These are just a few issues i have encountered using it for 6 hours or so.
ederbond
Copper Contributor
Jun 26, 2025
Stop with all this fool arguments Microsoft. Outlook was supposed to be built using a NATIVE framework like WinUI or .NET MAUI.
Under this incompetent CEO Nadella, MSFT is becoming the most hated company by it's long standing developer community.
Instead o dogfooding your own native .NET tech stack to create a top notch performant app with AOT compilation and all the goodness .NET has and at the same time transmit confidence on it's own .NET technology to the developer community, no. You guys prefer to just create a crappy web based app and keep insisting on the same error. And it that wasn't enough, MSFT it's just irrationally pushing the dam malware crapilot on everything without the option to completely disable it. Whoever it's on charge of Outlook team now should be fired because of it's incompetence to hear what it's users feedback about the crap you're delivering.
Forrest_H
Steel Contributor
Jun 26, 2025
Does anyone know if the ability to Create or Edit Custom "Search Folders" from the Classic Outlook will be added to the "New Outlook"
I can see one I had created in Classic but I cannot Edit it nor can I figure out how to create a new one based on a Date Range.
I used the Custom Search Folder on Date Range for my Performance Reviews.
leonidev
Iron Contributor
Jun 25, 2025
Please stop taking us for fools. Enough with these apps based on web technologies — they're ugly, slow, lack features, and don’t integrate with operating systems.
There’s absolutely no advantage for users in using web technologies, and they’re not even a benefit for developers — only for companies that want to save money by building a single app that performs poorly everywhere.
These apps run mediocrely in browsers, badly on mobile, and are terrible on PCs!
Web-based applications are bloated, heavy, and sluggish. They contain thousands of tiny files that wear out SSDs, and we end up with dozens of copies of the same files wasting precious space.
And stop lying about "simplification" — all you’re doing is removing useful features or hiding them behind a maze of menus.
The features that were missing in classic Outlook weren’t due to development technology, but simply because you never wanted to implement them.
With this rewrite into web-based apps, you're taking 100 steps backwards: removing useful features, adding often pointless ones, and the features you remove either never come back or take years to return.
- PeteMitchell
  Copper Contributor
  Jun 25, 2025
  Exactly. I don't believe for a second that these new features they're touting couldn't have been added to Classic Outlook if they really wanted to.
  Exchange Online shared mailboxes cannot be added to New Outlook for some users, apparently at random, due to a "no permissions" error. This worked fine in Classic with the same shared mailboxes. Microsoft support has never been able to figure out why.
  New Outlook is a memory hog compared to Classic.
  Using the option on the right sidebar to show upcoming calendar events keeps getting turned off because some genius decided it was a good idea to also use that sidebar for other things. So users keep clicking the X to close the other items, which then turns off the upcoming calendar events view.
  I could go on and on...
The_Smart_One
Iron Contributor
Jun 25, 2025
There are sound, functional reasons against the adoption of the new Outlook:
It cannot access on-perm mail servers because it's not a real email client. Rather, it's a glorified PWA.
It's not economically justifiable because it doubles our email storage cost. Previously, owning a premium Gmail account mean we had to pay Gmail for the extra storage space. Now, we have to pay Microsoft too because the New Outlook transfers our email to Microsoft Cloud and charges us for the space they consume.
It's a security liability because, as I said above, the new Outlook stores a copy of our Gmail message on Microsoft Cloud, thus make Microsoft a middleman.
To sum it up, the question is, "Suppose I adopted the new Outlook. What's in it for me?" The answer is, "more trouble, higher expenditure, higher TCO, lower security, and vendor lock-in."
youhavetowonderwhy
Copper Contributor
Jun 25, 2025
Dear God, please add the ability to search across multiple mailboxes/email accounts from one prompt! Until then, it's a no-go for me.
Simon_Geary
Copper Contributor
Jun 25, 2025
What keeps me going back to using classic Outlook:
Inability to copy calendar entries between different accounts (a hard blocker for me. Right click > Duplicate Event just doesn't cut it)
Inability to use mouse wheel to scroll through the months in the calendar (not critical, but annoying)
In my preferred calendar view (Month, Split) classic Outlook shows way more daily entries than new Outlook on the same screen, New Outlook shows +2, +4 or whatever instead of just showing the entries, like classic Outlook does
When you have multiple accounts, new Outlook doesn't remember if you have them expanded to show all folders. They default to collapsed
markm66
Iron Contributor
Jun 25, 2025
At this stage it remains a product that we will not actively test across the site (we have hidden the toggle via policy and informed staff of this decision - this occurred after "forced" updates to new outlook ). As an IT department we wont support new outlook in any way other than switching it back to classic.
For us it still cant do the basics
- double click to open emails in their own window only works on about 1 in 100 emails at best. When it does it doesn't remember the screen the last message was closed on.
- no ability on new emails to insert screenshots/grabs without taking the long way using snipping tools and the like. (this is used by many users on site)
- with dark theme cant have message body light as per classic and even the switch to light is only a toggle not a setting.
- waste of space with navbar on left.
- double click to open attachments in the desktop app (pdf,docx, xlsx etc) we couldn't get to work even thou it has allegedly been rolled out.
It simply is a product that is not up to the standard of classic. Saying features will come in the future isn't software we will use. Our users don't exist to beta test your software.