Outlook "Stuck on top/Foreground". Issue is intermittent, and occurs usually after ~1 hour of use. Can be sooner

Anonymous
2019-08-27T03:07:13+00:00

Hi.

I have been having ongoing issues with Outlook for over 6 months, in which Outlook will become locked to the foreground.

Outlook has no add-ins enabled, and has been repaired, reinstalled, updated and downgraded many times.

The affected OS is a Windows Server 2016, functioning as a terminal server.

The affected users have two screens, and occasionally when a window is dragged to the same screen area as Outlook, Outlook will remain the foreground focus and the application being dragged will be "under/behind" the Outlook window.

This can also happen when the user is using a single screen.

This is not application specific, and even happens with the Outlook "New Email" window if popped-out from the Outlook client.

We have gathered numerous ETL logs and event logs and have come up with absolutely nothing.

Previously, the only known way to resolve the matter was to close and re-open Outlook.

However, strangely enough I have found that opening the options menu and closing it (Not changing any options, hitting either cancel or OK) will also resolve the issue.

From the options menu, we have tried with the following settings both enabled and disabled, with no luck on any setting:

  • Hardware Graphics Acceleration
  • Live Preview
  • Use Animations when expanding conversations and groups

We have tested the Email auto-configuration XML, and the MS partner support rep I was working with has confirmed that it is all okay.

I also provided him with screenshots of the connection status when Outlook is stuck, and we confirmed that all was OK there.

Another potential solution that was tried was unlocking and locking the taskbar. Both when the issue occurs and pro-actively.

We also recreated one of the users Outlook profile. This did not resolve the issue.

The issue is confirmed to not follow the user to other devices.

I'm sure there are more solutions that we have tried, that I have simply forgotten about during the length of this ticket.

At long last, the technician had advised me that I need to rebuild the affected server. This is not an option for us, as the server is used literally every single day inclusive of weekends, and the customer is entirely dependent on the running of this server.

I have now been advised by the technician to log a forum post here.

Please let me know if any other information should be required, but I feel this is quite extensive.

I do have recordings of the issue, and all ETL + Event logs.

Outlook | Windows | Classic Outlook for Windows | For home

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-02-18T14:36:01+00:00

    Hello everybody,

    Could we all share if we are using Google Chrome as browser as well, could it be a combination of O365 and a certain version of Google Chrome perhaps? We use Chrome in all desktops. Somewhere in this post I read something about Chrome.

    Thank you kindly,

    Best regards,

    Jeff

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-02-18T14:23:49+00:00

    Hi Jef,

    no, the regkey does not solve the problem.

    Regards,

    Michael

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-02-18T11:34:19+00:00

    Goodday Michael,

    We have the same registry in use with various servers. Could you please let us know if your issue has been resolved by removing this key?

    Many, many thanks,

    Best regards,

    Jef

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-02-14T15:07:50+00:00

    We have ticket number -  Ticket #17259328 - been open for a couple of months.  We think it was in Sept / Oct office patches - maybe first introduced in O365 patch round then this feature :-)  - added to MSI version. 

    Similar environment as everyone mentioned on this thread - Server 2016, Citrix, on prem Outlook 2016..  We are taking 10+ help desk calls a day.  We have resorted to two calls a week with EA support rep and teams.  Traction on this issue has been abysmally slow.  I guess a very hard problem to find - but very unclear why this is not a higher priority.  Most recent efforts include a custom telemetry package that we are applying and then waiting for issue to appear then - send results and entire VM.

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-02-14T08:04:34+00:00

    I would urge everyone to log tickets because they will not prioritise this issue without ticket pressure. Anyone who does can cross-reference my ticket [Ticket #:18415639]

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