Why are attachments in Outlook not opening to my default/desktop app, only as a preview in Outlook, when updated to Windows 11?

Anonymous
2023-04-27T12:21:33+00:00

I have a few users who recently switched to Windows 11 asking why attachments from outlook won't open on their desktop apps, only as a file preview in Outlook. My users are trying to move through a lot of communications at once, so needing to manually save and reopen the files on their desktop apps is clunky and adding inefficiency their work. The files they need to open also need to be manipulated, so leaving them in Outlook preview won't cut it (approvals, highlights, etc.). Short of reverting my users back to Windows 10, I have not found any other question thread or app setting that works to adjust this.

On Windows 10, double left-clicking an attachment in Outlook pops the "Opening Mail Attachment" window then allows me to open in my default viewer (e.g. a .pdf file will open in Adobe on click for me); in Windows 11, "open" and "always ask before opening this type of file" not selectable (grayed out). I can "save" the documents to my desktop then open them in the default viewer in Windows 11, but not open on click as before. Sorry for not having screen shots - pictures were not loading.

To my knowledge, here were no changes besides updating to Windows 11 (no policy change, no settings change, trust center is the same, etc.).

Outlooks performance with attachments on Windows 10 is much more intuitive and useful to us. What do I need to change to allow users updating to Windows 11 the same performance, or what could be causing this feature of Outlook to not work the same on Windows 11?

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-11-07T21:55:32+00:00

    Following same issue

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-11-18T11:01:09+00:00

    Following same annoying issue

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-11-21T15:30:39+00:00

    There is no "File>Options>>Trust Center. Why does microsoft keep changing these things and making them more difficult? I just want to open my attachments in the native apps, not in preview mode!

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-11-22T22:31:17+00:00

    Added my name to the various frustrated folk affected by and following this issue. It is hard not to see this as a flagrant attempt by MS to carry out yet more data-slurping/surveillance by inserting their own preview tools between us and our emailed attachments.

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-11-30T14:05:52+00:00

    This "fix" is not working any longer, as highlighted also by the long list of people replying below.

    @Nada, any further suggestions?

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