MicrosoftTo BryceCanyon,
Do note how you state your qualifications 'As a 30+yr experienced senior systems engineer'. Your statement says it all. How many people are 30 year experienced Senior Systems Engineers. Most advice I've seen in general advises to not mess with the Registry as it can be a dangerous thing to do which is why all advice advises that you Back Up your Registry before attempting to do anything with it.
You may not have seen my other comments about a Registry Edit which is that after you make your Registry Edit, you risk that something like a Windows Update will revert your changes back to what they were before your Registry Edit for Outlook which possibly might mean you would have to periodically make the change again to the Registry for the Outlook change.
In my opinion, it is better to have Outlook make the change back to the old format in the first place.
