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.

I too have a client with this problem, it's a 2012 R2 RDS environment, the users have a mix of dual or single monitors and encounter it. Luckily we rolled out Office 365 to our test hosts first, three users picked up on the issue which started our investigation, I can find no commonality between the users with the issue and those without other than them being important staff. We used Online Mode with Exchange 365 Outlook client is Version 2002 (Build 12527.20880 Click to Run) We have done fresh installs and even re-cloned a Production host to Test to try again We do also user User Profile Disks, and I did try forcing a profile that was affected to make a new disk but the issue came back. I've been down the path of disabling add ins and changing the registry key for the load behavior with no success I'm glad to have found this thread and hopefully Microsoft can release some sort of patch for this problem.

Same here, 2016 both server and office, x86 (dutch). Couple users having this on daily basis, some I never hear about it. Today i selected 2 users who have this issue daily and disabled all their addins (suggestion from other internet threads). Gonna let this run for a while and see how it goes.

Just a few tips: Following the advice of the MS support-engineer, we disabled the OneNote add-in in Outlook. This is a serverwide setting. It helped for some of our customers, but not all. Log in to the server with an Admin account. Start Outlook [File][Options][Add-ins] 'Manage 'COM add-ins'' Remove the checkmark in front of 'OneNote Notes about Outlook items' Click [OK] to close all windows. For one of our customers who had this issue on their Citrix XenApp 7.15 server, we published a desktop (instead op published app's), after which the problem didn't occur anymore. Note that this is not Always an option, it heavily depends on the use case.

We experience the same problem. When I give my users a new roaming profile then the issue stays away for a while but comes back eventually. Is there any update on this? Kind regards, Pieter

Same Problem here. We use: Windows 2016 Basic 64 bit MS Office Professional Plus 2016 Citrix 7.15 CU5 From about 100 User at least 5 are affected (probably more) . I think the first complaints started around februar 2020. First it looked like a user profil problem because we have 5 Server in the same delivery group and it had no influence on which server those users were. Unfortunately, I also have a problem with my subscription. So no ticket number from my side right now.

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

2020-07-30T05:07:43+00:00
I too have a client with this problem, it's a 2012 R2 RDS environment, the users have a mix of dual or single monitors and encounter it.

Luckily we rolled out Office 365 to our test hosts first, three users picked up on the issue which started our investigation, I can find no commonality between the users with the issue and those without other than them being important staff.
- We used Online Mode with Exchange 365
- Outlook client is Version 2002 (Build 12527.20880 Click to Run)
- We have done fresh installs and even re-cloned a Production host to Test to try again
- We do also user User Profile Disks, and I did try forcing a profile that was affected to make a new disk but the issue came back.
- I've been down the path of disabling add ins and changing the registry key for the load behavior with no success
I'm glad to have found this thread and hopefully Microsoft can release some sort of patch for this problem.
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Anonymous

2020-08-07T07:05:40+00:00

Same here, 2016 both server and office, x86 (dutch). Couple users having this on daily basis, some I never hear about it. Today i selected 2 users who have this issue daily and disabled all their addins (suggestion from other internet threads). Gonna let this run for a while and see how it goes.
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Anonymous

2020-08-07T08:50:21+00:00

Just a few tips:

Following the advice of the MS support-engineer, we disabled the OneNote add-in in Outlook. This is a serverwide setting.

It helped for some of our customers, but not all.

Log in to the server with an Admin account.

Start Outlook [File][Options][Add-ins]

'Manage 'COM add-ins''

Remove the checkmark in front of 'OneNote Notes about Outlook items'

Click [OK] to close all windows.

For one of our customers who had this issue on their Citrix XenApp 7.15 server, we published a desktop (instead op published app's), after which the problem didn't occur anymore. Note that this is not Always an option, it heavily depends on the use case.
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Anonymous

2020-08-10T16:03:52+00:00

We experience the same problem. When I give my users a new roaming profile then the issue stays away for a while but comes back eventually.

Is there any update on this?

Kind regards,

Pieter
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Anonymous

2020-08-13T15:03:18+00:00
Same Problem here.

We use:
- Windows 2016 Basic 64 bit
- MS Office Professional Plus 2016
- Citrix 7.15 CU5
From about 100 User at least 5 are affected (probably more) . I think the first complaints started around februar 2020. First it looked like a user profil problem because we have 5 Server in the same delivery group and it had no influence on which server those users were.

Unfortunately, I also have a problem with my subscription. So no ticket number from my side right now.
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