Outlook Navigation Pane moved from bottom to left

I'm a MSFT employee and ABSOLUTELY use the product but.... I'm not in product development. To your point, it's baffles me how such smart, creative people let things like this happen. My productivity is directly impacted by this lost basic feature - honestly. Instead of scanning my taskbar for my active tasks (e.g., in process emails, in process Excel files, etc.) I have to do several mouse moves and clicks. How could they think NOT keeping that immediate visual access makes any sense?

Thanks for the reply. It's good to know that MS employees use it, but I really meant the developers...I feel developers don't use it. They spend too much time in testing environments and don't use the live product maybe. Either way, for me this change is all about the loss of WIDTH. Horizontal screen real estate is everything! When I lose it, I take it personal. It was previously located where it was easy to get to and didn't take up any space. Now, even at only 1/2" (15 cm) width, I hate it. At least all the empty space down the side now matches all the empty space across the top! /sarcasm.

Did you try to implement the fix I posted in this thread? It does not require admin on the system. Mine has been great for months since I made the change.

I FOUND A SOLUTION!!! This is not mine but I have tried it and it worked for me. I do not have admin on my work system and it still worked. I have not rebooted yet to see if it will persist without admin.

The site I found the solution on is: https://www.extendoffice.com/documents/outlook/7190-outlook-move-navigation-bar-left-to-bottom.html

If this removes the link or you don't want to go, here is the short steps summary:

1. Open Regedit
2. Navigate to Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\ExperimentEcs\Overrides
3. If the string "Microsoft.Office.Outlook.Hub.HubBar"does not exist, create it by right clicking on Overrides in the left pane and selecting New->String Value
4. Paste "Microsoft.Office.Outlook.Hub.HubBar" in the new entry that appears in the right pane
5. Double-click the new name
6. Enter "False" in the Value data field.
7. Click OK
8. Close and restart Outlook
9. Voilà (pop culture reference, "which is short for, and then I found out")

Did you try to implement the fix I posted in this thread? It does not require admin on the system. Mine has been great for months since I made the change.

I FOUND A SOLUTION!!! This is not mine but I have tried it and it worked for me. I do not have admin on my work system and it still worked. I have not rebooted yet to see if it will persist without admin.

The site I found the solution on is: https://www.extendoffice.com/documents/outlook/7190-outlook-move-navigation-bar-left-to-bottom.html

If this removes the link or you don't want to go, here is the short steps summary:

1. Open Regedit
2. Navigate to Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\ExperimentEcs\Overrides
3. If the string "Microsoft.Office.Outlook.Hub.HubBar"does not exist, create it by right clicking on Overrides in the left pane and selecting New->String Value
4. Paste "Microsoft.Office.Outlook.Hub.HubBar" in the new entry that appears in the right pane
5. Double-click the new name
6. Enter "False" in the Value data field.
7. Click OK
8. Close and restart Outlook
9. Voilà (pop culture reference, "which is short for, and then I found out")

I try to avoid regedits, and I'm glad I did. The solution is actually an obscure check box in the Options menu. Options > Advanced > UNcheck the 'Show Apps in Outlook' and restart.

Reference (credit): Outlook for Windows: New location for the Mail, Calendar, People, and other modules (microsoft.com)

I agree. I only do them when I have to. My menu structure is different. I don't have that sub menu.

How did you determine it was that menu? I am interested in that process for future issues.