New Outlook vs. Outlook in Microsoft 365

I continue to find fault with the new version of Outlook. The auto-draft feature, saving bits of unsent emails during creation, really is frustrating. Today, I had (5) 4-month old email drafts that just appeared in my draft folder for no reason. The problems continue with the new version. I am close to calling it quits and moving over to Gmail where I have zero issues with it. I continually need to be aware of what gets saved to my drafts folder, and question if the documents were ever sent or not.

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The free outlook for windows is ad-supported

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Only if you don't have a subscription to Office 365 and don't have that outlook.com account set as primary in the app.

If you use gmail.com etc as the Microsoft account address, you need to add an outlook.com alias and set it as primary so you can add it to new outlook and avoid ads. If you don't have a subscription, using focused inbox makes it less annoying - the ads will only be on the other tab.

Ads in New Outlook

First - for many Outlook registry keys, you need to restart Outlook for it to take effect. When the key path includes Policies or HKLM (local machine) restarting Outlook is required. Keys in the regular office path are maybe/maybe not as to whether restarting Outlook is needed. Sometimes you just need to switch between calendar and mail a couple of times to trigger it.

But because this specific key changes the interface, restarting is required.

Whether you need to back up the registry depends on the keys you are touching. Adding Outlook (or any office-related) key, the worst it will do is cause the app not to work - windows will boot and you can delete the key you added. If you are deleting or changing a value, then you might want to back it up, unless the value is being switched from 0 to 1 or something easy to remember. (When I'm deleting keys, I often just rename it - with a dash at the beginning or end of the name - the software won't use it, and I can change the name back if needed.)

IF "New Outlook" Is Replacing the free Windows Mail App. Then Why Does my Paid outlook have a radio button to switch to "New Outlook" Is this a different "New Outlooks" and why would MS push people away from an app they are paying for in lieu of a free app that lacks features present in the paid one. This has to be branding in the most confusing way possible and I want to know is there 2 separate New Outlooks or no, and if no can we remove the radio button to switch since this is creating support nightmares already. Thank you.

my thoughts exactly...

I am a paid subscriber to Office 365 and feel like I had the more robust app in Outlook for 365 but am seeing the button to switch to New Outlook... what does that mean???

Microsoft - very confusing maybe you could call /name these products something differently...

Thank you for clearly stating that "It is not (currently) a replacement for the Outlook desktop program (part of Office)". And so showing us, that Microsoft only confuses us with their switch button inviting as to go from office Outlook (proprer full-fat Outlook) to this light weight "new Outlook".

Also, you supplied the link for feature list. It is for advanced users, which the requestor probably is not. And the others asking further questions just do not see your answer, because they want to see the comparison of uncomparable. No, the two applications are hardly comparable.