Why does Outlook no longer show the original URL on hovering over a link in an email message?

Anonymous
2024-06-01T03:42:17+00:00

Starting in 2019 sometime, Windows Outlook began showing the original URL on hovering over a link in an email message.

Before that, it had only shown the rewritten safelinks version, which is very difficult to read and not at all helpful to someone who's trying to check what's behind that link's display text.

This was a vast improvement, and these days it is essential to be able to quckly check links if people are to have a chance of avoiding phishing traps.

It's particularly important for those users (probably the majority) who wouldn't understand the safelinks URL, and might well assume it's safe because it's a microsoft.com link.

Sadly, though, some time within the last few months my Outlook 365 has reverted to showing the unreadable safelinks URL in both the hover popup and the status bar at the bottom of the Outlook window. I currently have Windows Outlook Version 2404 Build 16.0.17531.20152 Click-to-run.

The safelinks service is good, but there will always be malicious links that get past it, and people need to be able to decide whether or not to click on a link by seeing the actual URL it would go to, not simply assume that safelinks will take care of it.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Outlook | Windows | Classic Outlook for Windows | For business

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-06-14T13:12:10+00:00

    I agree, this is dangerous in terms of end users being unable to see the actual URL that they will be visiting when they click on a link within an email.

    Microsoft need to get this sorted asap. Can we have a response from a Microsoft staff member on this please?

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-06-27T17:33:09+00:00

    Dear Microsoft.

    By removing the URL preview on hover -

    You have removed the ability to see if a link is genuine or not, OR, to just see where a link goes, with your stupid version of outlook.

    You are reducing, drastically, a users ability to guage many things, including security, in emails.

    SOMETIMES people want to see what the URL is, even for mundane things like TO COPY IT.

    This is one of the dumbest moves you have made to date.

    You need to reinstate this, OR at a minimum, provide us with the ability to turn this nonsense off in options.

    I pay for my softare via subscriptions, I don't want to use the full outlook desktop app for most email tasks, the ligher verion is good - but you insist on making it worse with these pointless addtiions.

    NOW > any email that makes it past YOUR security - cannot be varified by HUMAN EYES to make sure it is safe - because some NPC working there thought this was a good idea.

    Fix it.

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-06-14T14:00:31+00:00

    Give Feed back with Feedback Hub. We need to get this changed!! This is a slap in the face of security, which seems to be the direction MS has gone since drinking the AI coolaid

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-07-10T23:18:37+00:00

    I'm assuming this is it. Settings >Mail>Compose and Reply>Link Preview

    No, that automatically adds a preview of links in message you receive as well as those you send.

    "When you open a message that contains a hyperlink or add a link to a message, Outlook inserts a preview of the website."

    You really do not want to do this. It means Outlook will automatically access the URLs in messages you receive ... and as we have been discussing, any such URL could be to a malicious site.

    Turn it off, if it was on.

    For similar reasons, turn off auto-downloading of images in received messages. Among other things, they can contain trackers.

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  5. Anonymous
    2024-06-01T23:45:01+00:00

    Using O365/MS Outlook desktop, when I hover over it shows the correct mail address

    I've since discovered that it shows the original address on some messages, but not on others.

    I don't see any pattern to this.

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