Targeting Trouble Spots in New Outlook

New Outlook eliminates some longtime Outlook features and could disrupt some business processes and mail-enabled applications. The accompanying chart shows some prominent features that are missing in new Outlook for Windows but available in “classic” Outlook, and the Nov. 2024 status of each feature. 

The most immediate problem for many enterprise customers will be COM add-ins and related extension technologies, including .NET add-ins (also called “VSTO” add-ins after the Visual Studio Tools for Office tool set), and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macros. Many of these were developed by Microsoft, partners, and some customers to integrate Outlook into other applications. Customers moving to new Outlook will have to do without or replace them with new JavaScript add-ins, some of which are already available for Salesforce and Microsoft customer relationship management (CRM) applications.

Microsoft gives its feature plans for new Outlook in more detail at https://support.microsoft.com/office/new-and-classic-outlook-for-windows-feature-comparison-de453583-1e76-48bf-975a-2e9cd2ee16dd. Current status and near-term plans for some new Outlook features are at https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-365/roadmap?filters=&searchterms=%23newoutlook.