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.

Hey All, Had remote session today with the MS tech. He could not engage a Windows engineer, but he did gather some additional logs from Procmon. The logs are full on, and I'm hopeful this should shed some insight. I've used procmon to troubleshoot before and it's super in depth, just time consuming to crawl through it all. I'll keep you guys posted. Thanks, Nick

Another one here with this problem. Using RDS 2016 servers. Happening to random users after a random amount of time. Main outlook 2016 screen gets locked to foreground and no other programs can be viewed on top of outlook screen. Do not use any language packages. Found plenty of solutions for previous versions but are not working for outlook 2016.

We have a similar issue: Server side setup is, RDS session hosts are Server 2012R2 and 2016 both load balanced collections and single server collections, Exchange 2016 with December 2019 Exchange CU15 installed. All server are fully up to date including Jan 2020 updates. Outlook is 2016 standard and fully patched including Jan 2020. Client side we have a mix of thin clients, laptops and work stations but all use Outlook as Remoteapp none are using Outlook in cached mode. As well as Outlook getting stuck on top, users also report: Thin client users say that Outlook randomly closes but we can still see it as a process in Task Manager for that user. Laptop user and workstation users say that Outlook appears to flash then pop to the front and steal focus. We have tried so many thing from stealing focus tweaks to setting up new profiles and even setup new session host serves but nothing has worked. We have a few RDS users on Outlook 2019 standard, none of them have reported the same issues as above but not sure if these issues can be called Outlook 2016 specific.

Adding my woes to this thread. We manage >100 users over dozens of companies and we have 3 people who have been facing this since late November / early December 2019 (although there could be more people who just haven't reported it yet) All 3 users are on remote servers (2x 2012 & 1x 2019) All servers have the latest updates and are set to download and install them automatically. We had one user on a 2012 server who said the issue just stopped for her... This is getting quite frustrating as, from a customer POV, it looks like we are just ignoring their concerns.

We have the same thing and only one user atm out of about 120. Server 2019 as a Terminal Server and Office365 (latest version).

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

Anonymous

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.

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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211 answers

Anonymous

2020-01-29T06:36:47+00:00

Hey All,

Had remote session today with the MS tech.

He could not engage a Windows engineer, but he did gather some additional logs from Procmon.

The logs are full on, and I'm hopeful this should shed some insight.

I've used procmon to troubleshoot before and it's super in depth, just time consuming to crawl through it all.

I'll keep you guys posted.

Thanks,

Nick
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Anonymous

2020-01-28T17:28:07+00:00

Another one here with this problem. Using RDS 2016 servers. Happening to random users after a random amount of time. Main outlook 2016 screen gets locked to foreground and no other programs can be viewed on top of outlook screen. Do not use any language packages. Found plenty of solutions for previous versions but are not working for outlook 2016.
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Anonymous

2020-01-27T15:31:52+00:00

We have a similar issue:

Server side setup is, RDS session hosts are Server 2012R2 and 2016 both load balanced collections and single server collections, Exchange 2016 with December 2019 Exchange CU15 installed. All server are fully up to date including Jan 2020 updates. Outlook is 2016 standard and fully patched including Jan 2020.

Client side we have a mix of thin clients, laptops and work stations but all use Outlook as Remoteapp none are using Outlook in cached mode.

As well as Outlook getting stuck on top, users also report:

Thin client users say that Outlook randomly closes but we can still see it as a process in Task Manager for that user.

Laptop user and workstation users say that Outlook appears to flash then pop to the front and steal focus.

We have tried so many thing from stealing focus tweaks to setting up new profiles and even setup new session host serves but nothing has worked.

We have a few RDS users on Outlook 2019 standard, none of them have reported the same issues as above but not sure if these issues can be called Outlook 2016 specific.
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Anonymous

2020-01-24T10:38:29+00:00

Adding my woes to this thread.

We manage >100 users over dozens of companies and we have 3 people who have been facing this since late November / early December 2019 (although there could be more people who just haven't reported it yet)

All 3 users are on remote servers (2x 2012 & 1x 2019)

All servers have the latest updates and are set to download and install them automatically.

We had one user on a 2012 server who said the issue just stopped for her...

This is getting quite frustrating as, from a customer POV, it looks like we are just ignoring their concerns.
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Anonymous

2020-01-23T19:23:45+00:00

We have the same thing and only one user atm out of about 120. Server 2019 as a Terminal Server and Office365 (latest version).
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