In the fast-moving world of technology, change is the only constant. What’s cutting-edge today may be outdated tomorrow—and ancient next week. But for decades, one program has remained a workplace staple across industries and offices nationwide: Microsoft Outlook. Now, Outlook is evolving with new features and updates designed to enhance productivity, security, and user experience. Let’s dive into what’s changing with the New Outlook and how it impacts you.
The New Outlook: A Fresh Coat of Paint
If you want an idea of what the New Outlook looks like, go to Outlook for the Web, which has a similar interface. The granular controls over every aspect of the software have been pruned. In their place is a sleek, stylish interface more consonant with contemporary work culture. That’s fancy talk for “it looks cool.”
The New Outlook is not just style over substance. It lets you take advantage of features present only in Outlook for the Web – until now.
- Pinning Emails: You can choose a message to keep at the top of your inbox, whether read or not. (If you’re working on an important issue and need to find the
correspondence, you can pin multiple emails.) - Sweeping Emails: The “Sweep” function lets you delete or move emails en masse. For example, you could move all the emails from IT Acceleration to the “Gold Standard in Information Technology” folder. (Just a suggestion, of course.) You can also choose emails from any of our competitors and put them into the trash with just a few clicks! (Again, just a suggestion.)
- Snoozing Emails: If you’re tagged in an email that has almost nothing to do with you, put the issue to rest by snoozing it.
- AI Tools – Meet Copilot. Much like ChatGPT, Copilot is a natural-language, Large Language Model artificial intelligence that can understand questions, give answers, and make life simpler by doing the hard searching for you.
What’s Not Included in The New Outlook
For now, some familiar features from Classic Outlook are missing in New Outlook. PST files for archived emails, advanced customized views, and the classic Task module are absent. But is this really a loss? In a modern enterprise, there’s no need to consolidate emails into a massive 40GB file sitting on an obscure hard drive—that’s essentially what PSTs are, and they’re hardly the most efficient way to retrieve old data.
Another feature that won’t make its way to the New Outlook is classic COM add-ins. These integrations—like scheduling a Zoom meeting or using finance tools like F9 Viewer—will no longer be supported.
The Great New Outlook Migration Starts in April 2026
In January, you might have noticed a little button in the top-right of Outlook that says “New Outlook”. If you click that button, New Outlook will launch and give you a preview of what’s to come. If you don’t like it, you can click the toggle again to return to Outlook Classic for now.
Go ahead, dip your toes in. You might like what you find. Plus, it’s better to get acclimated to the software sooner rather than later because everyone will need to upgrade in April of 2026—the date set by Microsoft to start the transition. While you can still opt-out, New Outlook will be the only Outlook by 2029, when classic Outlook will no longer be supported.
Need Help with the New Outlook?
We get it: Any change to your email system can feel overwhelming. Whether you’re excited about a modern, faster experience or worried about losing some of your trusted old tools, IT Acceleration is here to help make your transition as smooth as possible. We can help you:
Test New Outlook in Pilot Groups
IT Acceleration will work with you to determine who on your staff are the best candidates to upgrade first. The pilot members can give necessary feedback, report any bugs, and coordinate with us to determine fixes, solutions, or workarounds.
Plan the Transition
We can work with you and your users to create internal documentation, giving your staff advanced warning of the changes and how they can best adapt to them.
Sort Out Compatibility Issues
If you’re using legacy add-ins or custom tools, we can help you coordinate with vendors or find alternative solutions.
Ultimately, whatever program you use to send or receive emails is a vital tool for getting the work done. Transitions and changes can be challenging—unless you have a team of first-rank talent to help lead the way. If you’d like help in planning the deployment and assessing its impact on your team, contact IT Acceleration today.