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.

Nick, Have you heard anything back on this? Is there a KB associated with this? Thanks, John

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4580390/windows-10-update-kb4580390 Can somebody confirm that this is the fix MS was talking about?

I also have this issue with one customer running Windows Server 2019, Citrix 1912 CU1, Office 365 (Semi-Annual update channel). Earlier we runned Citrix UPM as profile managment, with .ost file stored on a network drive. Now this is changed to FSLogix. We had this issue both with Citrix UPM and FSLogix. This customer had our Hosted Exhange earlier this year, with Office 2016 MSI installer on the Citrix Worker/Session Host. Did not have this issue then, it started when we migrated them to Office 365 and running the Office 365 ODT on the server. In the latest reply from MS that Nicholas got it sounds like its an update for Windows and not for Office/Outlook. Is it maybe this update that MS is refering to? https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4580390/windows-10-update-kb4580390 I noticed this row listed as fixed, that maybe can be related to this issue: Addresses an issue that causes an application to stop responding temporarily, which causes extra z-order operations that affect the Window.Topmost property of a window.

Nick, Have you heard anything back on this? Is there a KB associated with this? Thanks, Tim Hi All, I hope everyone is well - looks like we've finally had some good news come out of 2020, see below: Did anyone else get anything similar? Thanks, Nick

Hello all, does anyone know anything about the patch? According to the statement from Microsoft Support in Nick's post, we should get something later this week. Does anyone already have a KB other informations? Thanks.

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

2020-11-11T10:29:15+00:00

Nick,

Have you heard anything back on this? Is there a KB associated with this?

Thanks,

John
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Anonymous

2020-11-11T07:23:44+00:00

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4580390/windows-10-update-kb4580390

Can somebody confirm that this is the fix MS was talking about?
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Anonymous

2020-10-30T08:40:26+00:00

I also have this issue with one customer running Windows Server 2019, Citrix 1912 CU1, Office 365 (Semi-Annual update channel).

Earlier we runned Citrix UPM as profile managment, with .ost file stored on a network drive.

Now this is changed to FSLogix.

We had this issue both with Citrix UPM and FSLogix.

This customer had our Hosted Exhange earlier this year, with Office 2016 MSI installer on the Citrix Worker/Session Host.

Did not have this issue then, it started when we migrated them to Office 365 and running the Office 365 ODT on the server.

In the latest reply from MS that Nicholas got it sounds like its an update for Windows and not for Office/Outlook.

Is it maybe this update that MS is refering to?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4580390/windows-10-update-kb4580390

I noticed this row listed as fixed, that maybe can be related to this issue:

Addresses an issue that causes an application to stop responding temporarily, which causes extra z-order operations that affect the Window.Topmost property of a window.
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Anonymous

2020-10-28T16:44:09+00:00

Nick,

Have you heard anything back on this? Is there a KB associated with this?

Thanks,

Tim

Hi All,

I hope everyone is well - looks like we've finally had some good news come out of 2020, see below:

Did anyone else get anything similar?

Thanks,

Nick
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Anonymous

2020-10-28T06:40:53+00:00

Hello all,

does anyone know anything about the patch? According to the statement from Microsoft Support in Nick's post, we should get something later this week. Does anyone already have a KB other informations?

Thanks.
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