Switch from 'new' Outlook (2023) to 'classic' outlook

Anonymous

I need to go back to the Classic version because the 'new' Outlook lacks some features that I need for work.

This webpage https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/getting-started-with-the-new-outlook-for-windows-656bb8d9-5a60-49b2-a98b-ba7822bc7627 states "You can switch back whenever you want, just switch the toggle off in the new Outlook and it will automatically open the classic version."

There is no toggle. Is there any other way I can undo this update and go back to the previous version?

EDIT: Moved FROM Microsoft 365 Insider / Outlook / Windows TO Outlook / Outlook for Windows / For business.

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Anonymous

Once flipped on, the toggle is irrelevant since the "old" version still exists. Just run it. You should still be able to find its shortcut in Start (and wherever else you might have had it before), but if not you will see outlook.exe in one of these places (may vary slightly depending on edition), so if necessary make a new shortcut:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16

or here:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16

The nice thing about the New Outlook is that it's not an either/or proposition (like New Teams is). You have both old and new. You can even run them concurrently.

But if running that actually runs New Outlook for you (some have reported that's the case), then either:

Uninstall Outlook

run Regedit.exe and go here (or the same with 15.0, if you don't have 16.0):

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Preferences

And in that you will see UseNewOutlook

Set it to 0, which means that running old Outlook actually runs it.

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177 additional answers

Anonymous

2023-04-21T14:42:16+00:00

The only problem is, when I open the old app, the new version opens instead.

That's interesting, but do you mean when you're clicking on outlook.exe directly or a shortcut?

FYI, new Outlook is olk.exe.

If it's really the case that outlook.exe launches olk.exe, that's something that I've never seen.
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Anonymous

2023-04-21T18:28:58+00:00

I had the same problem. Oddly, after I removed the shortcut for the new version from my taskbar the old version would open properly.
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Anonymous

2023-04-21T19:05:55+00:00

I reproduced this problem, which I guess is a feature, on another machine. Unpinning the taskbar icon for the new version didn't work to be able to run the old version again despite the old version still existing.

So, if anyone is missing the toggle (which is another problem) after using it, what you can do is go here in Regedit.exe:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Preferences

And in that you will see UseNewOutlook:

Set it to 0, which means that running old Outlook actually runs it.

It is true though that once toggled on and New Outlook is installed, if later toggled off (or the above is manually set to 0 if you no longer have the toggle), you will continue to also be able to run New Outlook. That's really the best state to be in.
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Anonymous

2023-04-21T19:30:00+00:00

Hi reseiler,

Thank you for all your suggestions! I am able to use the old Outlook now because of your previous post.

Just for fun I looked in the Registry editor and I do not have the UseNewOutlook option:

Though I understand that this is not a fully formed product, it is disappointing that was made available for all users with zero documentation.
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