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philip42h's avatar
philip42h
Copper Contributor
Apr 15, 2026

Will Microsoft ever provide a viable email client again?

I'm a long time user of Outlook - from long before it became Classic. It was a perfectly viable email client - not perfect but useable.

I tried New Outlook when it was first promoted, and quickly switched back because it was functional deficient at the time.

Since then, Microsoft have introduced issues into Classic Outlook - specifically:

  • It can't maintain a set Office theme. I can set a theme (the Microsoft default system setting) but it corrupts and highlights in black (for example) after a short while. (I believe after the PC switches off the screen or the PC sleeps)
  • It 'corrupts' while composing longer emails meaning that I cannot send or save the draft but must start again from scratch.

I tried new Outlook again - it's not as bad as it was - but:

  • It still doesn't allow me to present my email accounts in the order that I want to see them.
  • It doesn't manage Contacts and Contact Lists correctly - while Classic Outlook does.

So I now have my PC set-up to use both Classic and New Outlook and have to switch between them depending on what I need to do ... 🤷‍♂️😠

My requirements aren't trivial, but they are not that complicated:

  • I need to manage multiple email accounts - around 10 in all. I want to be able to present them in my 'most used' order - i.e. I want the ability to sort the order of accounts.
  • I have a Microsoft account that I use to log-in to my PC etc.
  • My default email account is Gmail
  • My default calendar account is Microsoft
  • I want a single default set of Contacts and Contacts lists that I can use in conjunction with any of my ten email accounts
  • I want my email client to be stable

Is that too much to ask? And why, oh why, can't Microsoft deliver such a solution?

2 Replies

  • philip42h wrote:

    Since then, Microsoft have introduced issues into Classic Outlook

    I would suggest posting the parts of your Question about specific issues with Classic Outlook in the Outlook Q&A Forum:

    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/tags/778/office-outlook

    This presents your question to a much larger audience and gets you access to the Outlook Subject Matter Support Specialist who monitor that forum.

    • philip42h's avatar
      philip42h
      Copper Contributor

      Thanks for the suggestion - and I will - but I'm less bothered about the defects in Classic Outlook (since Microsoft appear well on their way to deprecating that product anyway) than I am about getting a viable and working email client (even if that is not Outlook at all). 😉