The ribbon on Outlook 365 looks different after a restart this morning. For example rather than a X (cross) for Delete it now a symbol of a rubbish bin. Also other symbols have changed on the ribbon to this style of look and even things like reply purple arrow. Any idea how to get back to the original classic look?

What bothers me is that all icons feel the same, they all are black and white on top of a very bright / pale grey background. Thin lines and a very very simplistic design, almost sterile. You know what came to my mind when I fist saw it??

In the past for things like this, Microsoft would make the old design as a "theme" or "skin". Those that didn't like the new look could go back to the old one. This is the right way to do it - give the end user choice and control. Keep in mind too that businesses may have documentation on how to do things based on specific ribbon designs. This funky new look is all well and good, but it really is just change for the sake of change, and there are quite a few who do not like this, myself included.

When I saw the primitive icons, I thought it was a technical fault, as if it had reverted to some archaic form of Office. As they say, "s**t happens", and in this case, it's happened.

I think my biggest grief with the new icons is that they /feel/ larger; which in turn makes the ribbon feel taller (taking up more space). I don't know if they actually are larger, but that's my initial reaction to them. Seems like the interface got a little more touch friendly, much to the chagrin of keyboard/mouse users. Edit: The ribbon definitely feels larger because the tabs are now the same color as the ribbon rather than a contrast color.

Hello Juan Carlos, I have exactly the same problem and I can provide you with a screenshot of the hideous new look my Outlook suddenly has. I am very bothered that I wans't asked about this change / update! I think the design is horrible and it is definitely ruining the whole office 365 experience for me. How can I undo the changes and go back to the previous UI ? These kind of undates should be optional.

Outlook 365 Ribbon, etc | Microsoft Community Hub

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ChrisWebbTech
MVP
Oct 06, 2018
That’s the way office is going to look. You can’t really change it. Your only option is to turn back your release to a release that hasn’t brought these updates to it like current etc. see this post for registry to edit.

http://tomtalks.uk/2016/01/choose-office-2016-branch-local-group-policy/
- Dale Bentley
  Copper Contributor
  Oct 06, 2018
  Hey Chris, thanks for the reply. So do you know when did this particular feature get deployed, only saw it after an Outlook restart a few hours ago. Any details/link on this particular feature release? This doesn't really match up with what I am seeing: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/your-ribbon-icons-have-a-new-look-c6bc4cd8-d151-41d3-8276-fc7c9975eb79
  
  It seems to impact many other areas too outside of ribbon bar like Send symbol for new email, etc. Seems to be a whole new theme of some description.
  
  ChrisWebbTech wrote:
  That’s the way office is going to look. You can’t really change it. Your only option is to turn back your release to a release that hasn’t brought these updates to it like current etc. see this post for registry to edit.
  
  http://tomtalks.uk/2016/01/choose-office-2016-branch-local-group-policy/
  - wroot
    Silver Contributor
    Oct 06, 2018
    That's the blog post where i heard about Outlook redesign first time https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Outlook-Blog/Designed-for-Simplicity-User-experience-updates-to-Outlook-for/ba-p/241590
    But, for me it updated icons in whole Office (Excel and Word also) and my ribbon is not compact yet. Just a regular ribbon with new tabs animation and icons.
    
    I don't like the new design much either. Especially that it had slowed down my Office significantly (new animations are too slow). But that's Microsoft's decision and i don't think it will change. So installing older build is not an option, as you would have to go to the latest builds eventually to get security updates.

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Outlook 365 Ribbon, etc

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