The following articles were included in our Exchange Messaging Outlook (EMO) newsletter published on May 21, 2020.
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Today's Highlights:
- Office 365 from the Windows Store
- Securing your Outlook.com account
- Outlook’s new Search Bar and other changes
- Outlook.com Custom Domains
Office 365 from the Windows Store
If you are using an OEM-installed version of Office 365 that identifies as Windows Store in File, Account, in the About [app] section of any Office program and you want to switch to Click to run. Or if you just want to backup your profile because redoing the Outlook profile is not something you look forward to doing, I have instructions on how to get the profile from the virtual registry. If you are switching to click to run, you’ll need to fix the path names in the registry as it uses the Appx paths before restoring the profile, but search and replace makes quick work of that.
Instructions to view or edit the virtual registry are at Outlook Windows Store Registry
For more information about the Windows store version, code named Centennial, see The Windows Store Outlook App.
Securing your Outlook.com account
I always feel bad for users who ask me how to recover their email accounts when they forgot the password and no longer have the phone number linked to their account. Unfortunately, Microsoft support advocates cannot reset passwords or recovery information in Microsoft accounts. (Why? Because anyone could call, say they were you and steal your account.)
I can’t stress this enough: check your security contact information in outlook.com accounts at least once a year. If you create a new Outlook.com account, send another account you use an email then save the email. If you forget the address, find the email.
Microsoft has a web site you can use to look up account aliases that are linked to a phone number or email address, but it only shows you the first two letters in the alias.
To see a list of all the addresses linked to your phone number or security address: https://account.live.com/username/recover
You should have at least three email addresses or phone numbers added as security contacts. These are used to prove your identity and for account recovery. If you no longer use one of the security contacts, you have two others that will work. If you have two factor authentications enabled and forget your password, you need two recovery addresses to get back into your account.
If you get a new phone number, update your account.
Log in at https://account.live.com/proofs/manage/basic to check your security contacts.
Get a Recovery code and save it in a safe place, some place where you won’t forget where you put it or what it is for. If you forgot your password, you can use it to log into your account.
https://account.live.com/proofs/manage/additional
Seriously consider using a password manager so you don’t have to remember passwords (or email addresses / usernames.) And don’t use the same password for email, banking, and on other sites. One data breach will give hackers an easy way into all of your accounts.
Outlook’s new Search Bar and other changes
Anyone using an Office 365 software subscription should have the new Search bar, which is now in the title bar. Why was it moved? To match the search field location in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, and because some users complained that it wasted too much space. This update also sets a minimum width for the navigation pane and tweaked the category colors.
You can either rollback to an older build or delete two keys to get the old search field back, along with the smaller nav pane and the old category colors.
See Folder pane width change for the keys to remove. You will need to do this almost every time you restart Outlook, but there is a batch file in the discussion that removes the keys and starts Outlook.
To rollback, first, turn off updates in File > Account > Updates, otherwise the update will be reinstalled. Type cmd on the Start screen to find the Command Prompt then right click on it and choose Run as Administrator.
Paste this line in the command window and press Enter.
"C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\ClickToRun\officec2rclient.exe" /update user updatetoversion=16.0.12624.20442
Note: Many users complain that search results are not very good since the field moved. I believe this related to issues with the search engine and changing the keys won’t fix that.
Outlook.com Custom Domains
No, Microsoft is not ending the custom domain program offered to Office 365 Family or Personal Subscribers. There is a bug in the Outlook.com settings portal that prevents the custom domain page from displaying.
They are ending the custom domain hosting that came up the legacy Outlook.com Premium accounts that also offered Ad-Free Outlook. Users with domains in this program will need to purchase an Office subscription to keep their custom domain, and if Microsoft purchased the domain, transfer it to another registrar.
For more information, see Microsoft's article at Personalized email addresses in Outlook.com Premium are being retired. Remember, this is not the same program as the personalized email address available with Office 365 Personal or Family subscriptions!
New & Updated Exchange KB Articles
Cumulative Update 1 for Exchange Server 2019
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4471391
New & Updated Office 365 KB Articles
How to deploy OneNote MSI update and OneNote Class Notebook Add-in
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4549688
May 2020 updates for Microsoft Office
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4549680
New & Updated Outlook KB Articles
Business Contact Manager crashes after upgrading to Windows 10
https://support.microsoft.com/help/3093158
Error message when you open the Outlook for Android app
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4549582
May 5, 2020, update for Outlook 2016 (KB4484343)
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4484343
Other Resources
Outlook's Windows Store Registry
How to find and export or edit the registry files used by Outlook in the Office 365 Windows store version.
May 2020 updates for Microsoft Office
Microsoft released the following security and nonsecurity updates for Office in May 2020.
Change Insight's Focus Time Appointments
Add categories and change to Tentative the Focus Time appointments created by the Insights feature of Office 365 Exchange Online.
Enable Automatic Replies (OOF) using a macro
How to use a macro to set up an Automatic reply (out of office reply) in Outlook on Windows desktop.