Hi Community,

Let’s start with a question. Do you like the “new” Outlook? If you are like me and your answer is no then i invite you to read further.

The “new” Outlook, according to Microsoft, is a native application, based on WebView2. The experience is provided by Outlook on the web but is given access to local machine resources through the Native Windows Integration Component. With this approach, features and scenarios previously inaccessible to web apps can be implemented in the new Outlook for Windows. A few examples are rich notifications and more complete access to files and local resources.

Windows integration is managed by a small component that updates in the background. Updates are delivered approximately every week from the Office Content Delivery Network (CDN). In the past, such a fast update cadence would be challenging for large deployments due to the validation steps most enterprises undertake. This update cadence is less of a concern for new Outlook because almost none of the feature implementations are in this Windows integration component. It serves as a thin application only providing access to local machine resources.

Consistent with many service-based architectures, the client and service remain close in version. If updates can’t be applied for an extended period, users could see an error message that new Outlook isn’t compatible with the current service. If this error occurs, users can close and reopen the application to apply the latest update.

Organizations used to distribute updates for classic Outlook from a custom local network location, but this practice is now obsolete and unnecessary due to the reduced package size.

The journey through the update stages is represented in the timeline shown. After General Availability, Microsoft will use existing channels to provide a “notice of disruptive change” 12-months before moving to the opt-out and cutover stages in production rings.

I do also need to alk about the features between the different features of the different versions, including also the Windows Mail app which is going to be deprecated. See the table for the features per Outlook “version”

*Coming soon

**Supported in Outlook for Windows through the To-Do Bar

***With limited capabilities – What these are only God knows 😉

Now let’s see what options we have to get rid of this “New” Outlook.

Control the installation and use of the “new” Outlook

We have different options when it comes to control the install and use of the “new” Outlook. I will show you some options on how you can control this for your end users and customers. The last one will be my favorite because this is done in Intune.

Prevent users from switching to the “new” Outlook and set the Admin-Controlled option in the App Admin center

Some organizations may choose to use a policy to prevent the “Try the new Outlook” toggle from showing up in the classic Outlook for Windows until they’re prepared to switch over.

This option to hide the new Outlook is available as a cloud policy in the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center. To set it up:

• Sign in to the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center.
• Go to Customization and choose Policy Management.
• Click Create to set up a new cloud policy.
• Search for the “Hide the ‘Try the new Outlook’ toggle in Outlook” policy and turn it on.
• Search for the “Admin-Controlled Migration to New Outlook” policy and turn it on.

The Hide the Try the new Outlook toggle is this check box in Outlook.

In the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center click on Policy management – create.

Give your policy a name e.g. Control “new” Outlook and a description if you want. Click next.

Choose your scope for the deployment of this policy. I will set it to all users. Click next.

Now in the search box typ in new Outlook, we want Admin-Controlled Migration to New Outlook and Hide the “Try the new Oultook” toggle in Outlook.

For Admin-Controlled Migration to New Outlook set it to disabled and click Apply.

For Hide the “Try the new Oultook” toggle in Outlook set is to enabled and click Apply.

You will see a Configured status after you edited these 2 settings. Click next.

Review your settings and click Create.

Now you have created your policy the next question is how to these policies get to my users? Well this is another thing. This works completely different than a GPO or an Intune Policy. This is what Microsoft states on this:

The Click-to-Run service used by Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise checks in with the Cloud Policy service regularly to see if there are any policies that pertain to the signed in user. If there are, then the appropriate policies are applied and take effect the next time the user opens an Office app, such as Word or Excel.

• When an Office app is launched or the signed in user changes, the Click-to-Run service determines if it’s time to retrieve policies for the signed in user.
  • If this is the user’s first sign in, the check-in call is made to retrieve policies for the signed in user.
  • If the user has previously signed in, the check-in call is made only if the check-in interval has lapsed.
• When the service receives the check-in call, Microsoft Entra group membership is determined for the user.
  • If the user isn’t a member of a Microsoft Entra group that is assigned a policy configuration, the service informs Click-to-Run to check back in 24 hours for this user.
  • If the user is a member of a Microsoft Entra group that is assigned a policy configuration, the service returns the appropriate policy settings for the user and informs Click-to-Run to check back in 90 minutes.
  • If there’s an error occurs, another check-in call is made the next time the user opens an Office app, such as Word or Excel.
  • If no Office apps are running when the next check-in call is scheduled, then the check will be made the next time the user opens an Office app, such as Word or Excel.

I have tried this option and waited, restarted, updated,… my Office installation but nothing happened….. So not my prefered method.

Let’s check out another option.

Using registry keys

Obviously these settings are based on registry keys, these are the keys you can use.

Hide the “Try the new Outlook” toggle in Outlook – enable

Set this reg key:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Options\General]
"HideNewOutlookToggle"=dword:00000001

Admin-Controlled Migration to New Outlook – disable the migration

Set this reg key

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Options\General]
"donewoutlookautomigration"=dword:00000001

You will not want to do this manually but you can use other methods to deploy reg keys in your or your customers organization. Also not my prefered method.

Block “new” Outlook preinstall

Starting with Windows builds after 23H2, the new Outlook app comes preinstalled for all users, as it will eventually replace the Mail and Calendar apps by the end of 2024.

At the moment, there’s no option to stop the new Outlook from being installed before it takes over from the Mail & Calendar apps. If you’d rather not have the new Outlook appear on your organization’s devices, you can uninstall it after it’s been installed during the update.

To remove the app package, use the Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage cmdlet with the PackageName parameter value Microsoft.OutlookForWindows. After removal, Windows updates won’t reinstall new Outlook.

Use the following command in Windows PowerShell:

Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -AllUsers -Online -PackageName (Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.OutlookForWindows).PackageFullName

Additionally, remove this Windows orchestrator registry value:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsUpdate\Orchestrator\UScheduler_Oobe\OutlookUpdate

For any device that installed the March 2024 Non-Security Preview release (or later cumulative update) for Windows 11 Version 23H2, Windows Orchestrator respects the deprovisioning cmdlet and it’s not necessary to remove this registry value.

In cases of user installs, for example, if users used the toggle to install the new Outlook for Windows, use Remove-AppxPackage. The AppxPackage cmdlets are used for managing applications for current users, while AppxProvisionedPackage cmdlets are used for managing default applications for both current and future users of the system.

Use this Windows PowerShell command to remove the new Outlook for Windows for all users:

Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers -Package (Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.OutlookForWindows).PackageFullName

I didn’t try this method, again not my prefered method.

Block the “new” Outlook with Intune

This will be my prefered methode, however Microsoft states this in its docs:

Future availability: This policy will also be available through Group Policy, Cloud Policy, and Intune.

 

Control installation and use of new Outlook - Microsoft 365 Apps

Describes how to control the installation and use of new Outlook in an organization

In my perspective this will be a future avalability. With that in mind i thought let’s check this out and i went over to the Intune portal. I will show you how to configure these 2 settings with Intune.

Go to the Intune portal – Devices – Windows – Configuration – Create – New Policy – Platform: Windows 10 and later – Profile type: Settings Catalog – Create

Name you policy e.g. Disable new Outlook toggle and Admin Control and give it a description if you want. Click next and click Add Setting. In the Settings picker search for new Outlook. Select Microsoft Outlook 2016\Outlook Options\Other and select Admin-Controlled Migration to New Outlook (User) and Hide the “Try the new Oultook” toggle in Outlook (User).

Set the policy Hide the “Try the new Oultook” toggle in Outlook (User) to Enabled and the Admin-Controlled Migration to New Outlook (User) to Disabled. Click next.

Set scope tags if you want and assign this policy to a user group. This is important because these are user based settings.

Now when your device will perform a sync to Intune the nessecary registry keys will be created for you.

And as you can see my toggle box in Outlook is gone.

You can play around with the registry setting to see the behaviour on your devices. Keep in mind that if you have Config Refresh enabled in your Intune tenant the registry keys you change manually will be changed back again to the keys that are set in your Intune policy.

More info on Config Refresh is found here:

This concludes my blog on the “new” Outlook. There are some other options available to get htis done but the Intune way is my preferd way. I saw in the community that other people where using remediation scripts which is also fine however customers with Microsoft 365 Business Premium licenses cannot use these scripts because you need Enterprise licenses to do this.

And as always if you feel there is something in error or you want to add some stuff from your own experience don’t hesitate to contact me!