Outlook keep resetting ribbon back to default after changes

You've hit the nail on the head. It's just another form of force-fed "advertising." Some idiot has decided that if we just get the icon in front of the user enough times, they'll just be compelled to try our newest BS features.

In my case, the customizations are restored when I click on each window (only for the window clicked). Give it a couple of minutes, and it will shift most or all of them back to defaults.

You're right: why allow users to customize the ribbon if they know they are going to continuously change/reset it? Obviously the marketing dept has precendence over the developers, some of whom actually listen to user feedback.

And why do they do this? Because they can.

I have been searching for a solution to the ever-changing ribbon since Microsoft added this "feature" to Outlook, I have tried all the suggestions posted and none of them work well or consistently. Maybe disabling Office Updates permanently might work but then you would not be getting security updates or any other beneficial updates. And even then MS probably would find a way to sneak all those useless buttons back to your ribbon through the accursed "Click-to-Run".

I suggest that we all stand and shout together "F-CK YOU MICROSOFT!"

I also thought that setting the customization file as read-only was the solution. It seemed to work for awhile but eventually those invasive and unwanted icons found a way to sneak back onto my ribbon.

New idea: recently someone suggested changing the outlook customizations file stored locally on the computer as "Outlook Customizations (olkexplorer).exportedUI" to read-only. I kind of doubt that it will work but, hell, it's worth a try. I will update the forum regarding whether it works or not.

Unfortunately... This is a work computer on a huge network and I don't have permissions to access those kinds of files. I'm pretty much limited to in-app settings.