New Outlook – Avoidance Techniques

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Like many people, I’m unhappy with Microsoft’s attempts to force me to use the New Outlook app instead of the Mail & Calendar app. I too have found New Outlook is slow to start, is clunky and ad-riddled. I also have had difficulty in registering my various email addresses with the new app. So it’s a case of thanks, but no thanks, Microsoft. Unfortunately, not only will they not take “no” for an answer, they have recently become much more aggressive in their tactics to force this piece of crapware on their victims. Windows as a Disservice, me thinks!

Earlier this year I came across this post on Reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/16pdixy/comment/kcrbgm7/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Balmashev93’s advice was to download a version of Mail & Calendar that predates the introduction of the “Try Outlook” pop-up. I duly downloaded the installation file as described, checked the SHA-1 (it was good) and filed it away for a rainy day.

That rainy day arrived last week; whenever I opened Mail I was forced to use New Outlook. I could revert to the old Mail app, but only for the current session. On closing down Mail or on restarting my PC, I was once again faced with the dreaded New Outlook. Even uninstalling New Outlook didn’t solve the problem, so I resorted to replacing the current Mail & Calendar app with the older version I had downloaded (after uninstalling New Outlook, of course).

The result is that I now have my old Mail app back, with no annoying pop-ups to try the New Outlook. Shutting it down & restarting is fine, too. Bye bye, New Outlook! Or is it?

I expect that when I next do a Windows Update that I’ll be faced with a resurrection of New Outlook, but I should be able to drive the same stake through its heart and be free of New Outlook until the next Windows Update.

On this subject I have come across another method of killing New Outlook, which is supposed to be permanent:

https://github.com/matej137/OutlookRemover

According to the description, the batch file contains a script that prevents the Outlook (new) app from installing by installing a custom blank app with the same package ID as the original one, thus making its installation fail. To do this, it enables the developer mode via the registry and registers the modified New Outlook manifest as an unpacked Appx package.

If I get fed up with reinstalling the older version of Mail & Calendar I might take a look at this method (taking a system image first, of course). As this is a relatively new development in the war against New Outlook I would be interested to know if any AskWoody readers have tried it, and if they have had any success.

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Cybertooth, Stephen Carstensen, Bookman, BobbyB

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Here is an update on my attempt to keep using the Mail & Calendar app.

As I explained in my earlier post, I downloaded an earlier version of the app and installed it.

After a few days, it got replaced with Outlook (New) again. Consequently, I reinstalled it and turned off automatic updates in the Microsoft Store app. I also uninstalled Outlook (New).

The Mail & Calendar app has continued to work since late October, and 10 days into 2025, that is still the case.

The only reason Mail & Calendar stopped working for many people is because Microsoft were updating it with an increasingly crippled version via the Microsoft Store.
My changes are unaffected when I run Windows Update.

If I do need to update any store apps, I will have to reinstall Mail & Calendar, but that is a straightforward task.

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Cybertooth

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Here is another update on my determination to keep using Mail & Calendar instead of the dreaded Outlook (New).

Before installing February’s cumulative update, KB5051974 for Windows 10 22H2, I applied the registry key to block the installation of Outlook (New) as described here.

After installing the update, the Mail & Calendar app is still working. There have been no changes to my settings. MS Store’s automatic updates are still paused. Outlook (New) is nowhere to be seen.

For those wishing to revert to the older version of Mail & Calendar, it is available on the Uptodown website. I believe the latest version that does not have the toggle to try Outlook (New) is the 27 April 2023 version (File name: windows-mail-and-calendar-16005-14326-21422-0.appxbundle). The SHA-1 tag is 207c7c453c12057b7c8673399793937f6044b9fe.

When I installed this over the existing version (as of October 2024) it kept details of my email accounts and contacts. I had to make one or two tweaks to my preferences, but that was all.

I’m now hopeful that Microsoft’s attempts to foist their Outlook (New) crAPPware on me have been thwarted.

I’ve read many posts on different websites bemoaning the loss of Mail & Calendar. Hopefully, some of those folks will come across this post and realise they can get their preferred app back, whilst posting a familiar middle-fingered salute to Microsoft.

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Cybertooth

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