The following articles were included in our Exchange Messaging Outlook (EMO) newsletter published on February 6, 2025.
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Today's Highlights »
- Renaming Accounts in New Outlook
- Using Microsoft EASI Accounts in New Outlook
- Update: Outlook message list ‘jumps around’
- How to Remove and Block New Outlook in Windows 10
- New Outlook Blocks Energy-Saving Mode
- Clear Autocomplete List in New Outlook
Most of the articles this week are about features added to new Outlook. If you are using new Outlook and do not have the feature I mentioned yet, it will be coming soon. Features are first released to people using one of the Office Insider builds (available to Microsoft 365 Office subscribers). Some features may only be available to users with a subscription linked to new Outlook.
Renaming Accounts in New Outlook
Microsoft is rolling out an option to add a description (rename) to accounts in new Outlook. When the description is added, it shows up in the folder list using only the new name / description. When a folder in the account is added to the Favorites list with one or more folders of the same name (such as Inboxes from three different email accounts), you’ll see the description *and* the email address.
The description is not used in the calendar or contacts.
To add a description, View tab > View settings > Accounts. Click the Manage button beside the account you want to add the description to and type something in the Account description field.
Microsoft‘s note on this: “An account description replaces your email address in parts of Outlook. Account descriptions will show only in Mail and not in Calendar or People. Other people cannot see your account description.”
Also new and possibly more useful: You can color code folders in new Outlook. Simply right click on a folder and click on Change color and select one of 15 colors. In my opinion, many of the colors are too similar for tiny line art, especially because only the folder icon is colored, not the folder name and will not be helpful as a visual guide to find a folder. The colors and icons are not bold enough for navigation but they add a bit of color to the mailbox.
While color coding folders is a feature we’ve asked for years for classic Outlook, it’s unlikely to be added to classic Outlook. However, you can rename accounts and PST files in classic Outlook, but cannot rename Exchange and IMAP display names and have the name stick.
For more information on renaming accounts in classic Outlook, see these two articles:
Rename Exchange Mailbox and Account in Outlook
Rename Email Accounts and Data Files in the Folder List
Using Microsoft EASI Accounts in New Outlook
Or… how to remove ads from new Outlook when your Microsoft Account address is not an outlook.com / Hotmail address. (These are known as EASI accounts – Email As Sign In.)
When Microsoft first debuted Inbox ads in new Outlook for non-subscribers, subscribers whose Microsoft account address was not an outlook.com address had ads unless they added an outlook.com alias to the account and set it as the primary address on the account… and then added it to new Outlook and set it as the primary address there as well.
In addition, if you want to open a PST file in new Outlook, you currently need to have a subscription.
This will soon be fixed. Microsoft is rolling out the ability to add additional Microsoft accounts to new Outlook. This option is on View tab > View settings > Accounts, at the very bottom of the Your Accounts page. This can be used by Personal or Family subscribers who aren’t using an outlook.com address or work or school accounts with a software license, who do not want the work or school account in new Outlook, but don't want to see ads at the top of their mailbox either.
Microsoft support article: Connecting a Microsoft account with a third-party email address to Outlook
Tip: Inbox ads are the small ads at the top of the message list in the Inbox. If you don't have a subscription but want to make the ads less visible, enable Focused Inbox. You’ll have ads on the Other tab but not on the Focused tab.
Update: Classic Outlook message list ‘jumps around’
Three weeks ago, I mentioned a bug in classic Outlook where the message list jumped around when Grammarly add-in was installed. Some users without the Grammarly add-in were also affected.
Microsoft has identified the cause: Grammarly or another app that uses a Windows accessibility API triggers it. Unfortunately, I don't have information on when it might be fixed but do have two workarounds:
1. If you use Grammarly, disable it in Outlook or uninstall it.
2. If you don't use Grammarly or don't want to disable it, you can try turning off grouping to fix it. Do this in View tab > View Settings > Group by - uncheck the option to “Automatically group according to arrangement” and under “Group items by”, choose (none).
Microsoft Support article on the issue is here:
Classic Outlook jumps in the message list when clicking an email or scrolling
How to Remove and Block New Outlook in Windows 10
I get a lot of questions from users who want to remove new Outlook, especially now that it is included in Windows Update. You can do this using the Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage cmdlet with the PackageName parameter value Microsoft.OutlookForWindows. Note that removing it only removes new Outlook. If Windows Mail was removed, you won't be getting it back as it was removed from the Microsoft store. (I recommend Thunderbird or eM client as replacements.)
Open PowerShell and paste in the following line:
Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -AllUsers -Online -PackageName (Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.OutlookForWindows).PackageFullName
Administrators can block new Outlook from being installed as part of the Windows 10 update by adding the following key. (This should work for consumers too, but I have not tested it yet to confirm.)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsUpdate\Orchestrator\UScheduler_Oobe
REG_SZ: BlockedOobeUpdaters
Value: ["MS_Outlook"]
See Use Classic Outlook, not New Outlook for the registry key to remove the Try new Outlook switch from classic Outlook. The unadulterated BlockedOobeUpdaters key is at the end of this article.
More information on these keys is found in this Microsoft Learn article:
Control installation and use of new Outlook
New Outlook Blocks Energy-Saving Mode
A user shared this solution to stop new Outlook preventing his computer from using the energy saving mode (aka hibernation or standby mode). The user said setting the app to never run in the background in Windows Settings > Installed Apps > Outlook (new) > Advanced Options did not stop it from interrupting energy saving mode.
Use this command to change the power management behavior for olk.exe aka new Outlook:
powercfg /requestsoverride /PROCESS olk.exe SYSTEM
To use it, open the Command Prompt, type cmd on the start menu or in the search box and choose Run as Administrator. Then paste the command in the window and press Enter.
If you need to revert to the default power management behavior new Outlook, you can undo it using this command:
powercfg /requestsoverride /PROCESS olk.exe NONE
More info on the Power Management commands is in this Microsoft Learn article -
Powercfg command-line options | Microsoft Learn
See Outlook for Windows (olk.exe) prevents energy-saving mode? | Microsoft Community Hub for the user's post.
Clear Autocomplete List in New Outlook
You can clear Suggested People (autocomplete list) in new Outlook and Outlook on the web.
Go to View tab > View settings > General > Privacy and Data. Click the button to Clear data and turn off the autocomplete list. This will remove people from the autocomplete list that sent you email or who you’ve emailed but not contacts in your People folder.
Once you click the button the addresses cannot be recovered, but you can download a CSV file of all addresses in the auto complete list before clicking the button to clear it.
It can take up to 24 hours to clear the list. To turn it back on and create a fresh, new autocomplete list, click Activate expanded contacts suggestions (which appears after you click the Clear data and turn off button).
New & Updated Outlook Support Articles
Outlook 2016 MSI is not showing sender in search results - Microsoft Support
Classic Outlook crashes on reply and forward - Microsoft Support
Classic Outlook jumps in the message list when clicking an email or scrolling - Microsoft Support
Other Resources
Exchange Team Blog | Microsoft Community Hub
Insert Word Document into Email using VBA
How to use a macro to reply to senders by inserting the text from a Word document as the message text. There is also a macro to send a new message with the contents of a Word document inserted.