Posted on 12/04/2024 7:12:11 AM PST by dayglored
We're sure you'll learn to love the new Outlook for Windows app [not]
Microsoft is preparing to kill off the old Windows Mail, Calendar, and People apps by the end of this month and shift users to the Outlook for Windows app.
In November, Microsoft confirmed there would be no reprieve for the apps. It will be possible to export local emails, calendar events, and contacts that users have stored in Mail, Calendar, and People into the new Outlook up until December 31, 2024. After that, however, the ability to send or receive mail will be revoked.
"The new Outlook for Windows is for everyone. Now everyone with Windows gets the best of Outlook built into Windows for free," Microsoft said. AI is also on hand "to help you write impactful, clearer, mistake-free messages."
While it will continue to support "Classic" Outlook, Microsoft wants users to migrate to the new app. One user complained: "I don't need a bloated mail client. Mail and Calendar apps just work. If I need a more fully featured email client, I will just use the Office 365. [B]ut the 'new' Outlook is garbage."
Mail, or Windows Mail, was a follow-up to Outlook Express, so returning to the Outlook branding just might please some even if the implementation is not to everyone's taste. The People app arrived with Windows 8, and it has a confusing co-existence with Contacts, with both sharing some functionality.
The loss of People from Windows might trigger a few memories. Microsoft ditched the original Cardfile application, which was frequently used as a contact manager before the turn of the century. Schedule+ and Outlook Express eventually took over its contact management duties.
The new Outlook is web-based rather than a native Windows application. There is a marked difference in appearance and, according to some users, slower performance.
Still, switching between the old and new experiences had always been possible. Existing users of the three apps have mere weeks to go before either accepting the new Outlook or picking an alternative, such as Thunderbird or Vivaldi's email client. ®
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Hate the cloud-based e-mail apps. I lost a LOT of saved emails when a service I used went down, and I didn’t have it on my local computer. Yes, this can happen even to a behemoth like MicroSoft.
Seems like most everything MS is becoming cloud-based. They were constantly trying to get me to login to my Windows 10 PC with a cloud-based account. Nope, not happening. Then there's Microsoft 365, where the Office products now reside.
If I can still get to my Hotmail account by laptop, I’m ok.
I’ve got over 50,000 unopened emails going back forever. As long as they don’t make me clean those up I’ll be happy.
Using cloud based technology makes a person dependent on the cloud and the trust that it'll never fail. Most learned users know that to be not true at all, and very dangerous. I prefer to keep all my email local and on my machine, period. It's safer that way.
I use Thunderbird on my local machine with Outlook 2019 as a backup. I'm happy.
My first computer was a Macintosh 128 in February 1984. I had five other Apples after that. I finally got tired of paying top dollar for Macintosh software and switched to Windows. Now that Windows has totally gone to crap, I’m going back to Apple. Screw Microsoft.
I started using my outlook mail only for retailers and junk. Proton is where most of my “valuable” email is now.
That's what I use on all my personal machines.
My employer requires Outlook, so I use that for work email, but everything else is T'bird.

IT IS ALWAYS THUS.......................
It's a good time to migrate to Linux these days.
I have tried to install it several times on two different computers and it’s garbage. Will not migrate either my contracts or my calendars and, at least once, it has refused to send an email, placing it in a to be sent file but not sending it. I wish Microsoft had just left old outlook alone, because it works and worked just fine.
What about Visicalc?
TRU DAT!
I like how it works well across my Linux and Mac boxes.
AI is also on hand "to help you write impactful, clearer, mistake-free messages."I'm sure the AI will help eradicate "mistakes" like conservative ideas, politically incorrect phrases, etc.
How much more abuse from a product they paid for are people going to take? It has now surpassed all logic and rationality.
https://escapethetechnocracy.com/
Oh c'mon now, people are used to that.
How much money have you "paid" to the feral government over the years, only to get a smidgen of services and a cubic ton of abuse?
Same here. Been using Thunderbird since v0.5, along with Firefox since v0.8. March 2004. 20 years now.
I recently discovered Libre Office. It’s great. No need for Excel and Word now. It even runs macros, though I haven’t experimented much with this aspect.
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