Microsoft's many Outlooks are confusing users and employees
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The good news is that Outlook doesn't confuse anybody who hasn't used it in years (or never). Last time I did was when I worked at MS. Hasn't been a problem since.
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I got a new job, fully remote, and we use Teams. Not gonna lie, I don’t get the hate. It seems as exactly adequate as WebEx or Zoom. None of them make me cum, none of them make me upset.
What is it about Teams that people hate so much? How does WebEx or Zoom do it any better?
Fully onboard with hating new Outlook though, fuck it sucks. Can’t even browse the global address list, it’s search only.
I used self-hosted rocket chat before, now I use teams, I understand perfectly all the hate
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The new M365 Outlook is just webmail. Every upgrade is actually a reduction in functionality as they align to the web version. The good news is this eliminates the need for Windows.
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Yeah, you're talking about MDM (Mobile Device Management) solutions/tech. I'm not an IT employee myself, but I am familiar with these things from work (similar situation as yours), and also because I'm a nerd and like researching these things.
On some phones, like Samsung's ("Secure Folder"), you can have [essentially] a second, containerized instance of Android running. Or you can think of it like a virtual second user that ultimately you have control of. So what I did was install Outlook in that. Because the MDM permissions (e.g. wipe the phone) would only affect that container.
Otherwise, for everyone else -- yeah don't install work apps/accounts on your personal devices.
Just to expand on this. There is an Exchange specific wipe feature. I think it is quite old school and not really used. Have seen it, but never tested it myself. As per documentation it can perform device wipe, but only if native mail client using ActiveSync is used not Outlook. And it probably does not work with all native mail clients, depends if app has device admin permissions.
Current Intune MDM model always uses separate Android storage so any operation including wipe will affect only this storage not your personal space so employer can not see nor delete your personal data.
In Intune there is another option without a need of enrolling device (MDM) where you can manage supported apps. It's called MAM. If wipe is initiated it affects only data in all apps that support MAM.
In short, companies / schools cannot really wipe your device if we are talking about Intune MDM. Other MDM solutions probably can.
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I work in government, and on mobile devices Outlook government accounts are restricted so that all other accounts have to be removed from the app.
It sounds like a great security feature, but since I need access to 3 accounts for reasons, I've got one version installed on my city phone, one on my tablet, and had to install another on my personal phone.
We're budgeting in a second city phone for me next year because Outlook sucks.
If this is Android look into enrollment which will use separate storage called work profile so you will essentially have 2 independent copies of Outlook. Or it might be possible to have second copy of Outlook depending on your Android flavour. Samsung has Secure Folder for example.
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If this is Android look into enrollment which will use separate storage called work profile so you will essentially have 2 independent copies of Outlook. Or it might be possible to have second copy of Outlook depending on your Android flavour. Samsung has Secure Folder for example.
Oh, I've tried the shared mailbox thing. I had it at my last city and it worked fine, but our third-party IT service contractor here is the shittiest I've ever heard of.
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I still think there is a group of people working at microsoft, pulling the strings to dismantle the company from the inside. I haven't seen an update that makes things better for any of their projects in years
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Oh, I've tried the shared mailbox thing. I had it at my last city and it worked fine, but our third-party IT service contractor here is the shittiest I've ever heard of.
Yeah, experience can be wildly different depending who manages environment.
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Word and Powerpoint are not the worst - just think about all the time lost due to whatever Microsoft is doing in Teams or by random decisions like moving the start button to the middle instead of leaving it where it was since 1995, which automatically renders every corporate training video obsolete.
Sure, Teams is horrible - but at least it only affects people who use Teams. Whereas the abysmal UI and worthless templates in MS Word affects every person who has to read anything produced with MS Word too. It's designed to make documents ugly and hard to read.
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Yeah, you're talking about MDM (Mobile Device Management) solutions/tech. I'm not an IT employee myself, but I am familiar with these things from work (similar situation as yours), and also because I'm a nerd and like researching these things.
On some phones, like Samsung's ("Secure Folder"), you can have [essentially] a second, containerized instance of Android running. Or you can think of it like a virtual second user that ultimately you have control of. So what I did was install Outlook in that. Because the MDM permissions (e.g. wipe the phone) would only affect that container.
Otherwise, for everyone else -- yeah don't install work apps/accounts on your personal devices.
I'd love to keep outlook off my personal phone but there's no chance I'm getting a company phone considering I'm a shop employee and everything in it is an afterthought for IT. Like our computers still run windows 7.
Unfortunately I need email to do my job, on a ping system for what to test and general communications with coworkers who are often not there or traveling in the field.
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Just to expand on this. There is an Exchange specific wipe feature. I think it is quite old school and not really used. Have seen it, but never tested it myself. As per documentation it can perform device wipe, but only if native mail client using ActiveSync is used not Outlook. And it probably does not work with all native mail clients, depends if app has device admin permissions.
Current Intune MDM model always uses separate Android storage so any operation including wipe will affect only this storage not your personal space so employer can not see nor delete your personal data.
In Intune there is another option without a need of enrolling device (MDM) where you can manage supported apps. It's called MAM. If wipe is initiated it affects only data in all apps that support MAM.
In short, companies / schools cannot really wipe your device if we are talking about Intune MDM. Other MDM solutions probably can.
Activesync
Now, that's a name I've not heard in a long time. A long time.
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In my last job I installed Outlook on my personal phone to access my work calendar conveniently. Found out from a colleague that if the admin for an Outlook server you're signed into on any device fucks up badly enough you could end up having that device completely wiped so I promptly uninstalled it.
here's some advice from me. Outlook is completely usable from a web browser. This includes phone browsers... just use that if you need your emails on your personal phone.
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Hah, I JUST had a conversation with my boss about whether or not I was using the "new" outlook or the "old" outlook.
He's apparently using the "old" outlook because there's a toggle switch in the upper right of his window that says "try the new outlook!" and I don't have that, meaning...I guess I'm using the "new" outlook?
Who knows at this point. It's all trash.
https://outlook.office365.com/mail/inbox
^ this is the new version lmao. It's just an electron app (more or less)
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Yeah, experience can be wildly different depending who manages environment.
They took 3 weeks to attach my new plotter to the network because they didn't know how to figure out how to trace a fucking Cat 5 cable.
We have 12 employees in the city. My home office has a more complicated network closet.
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The good news is that Outlook doesn't confuse anybody who hasn't used it in years (or never). Last time I did was when I worked at MS. Hasn't been a problem since.
Bullshit, new outlook is total garbage. I dragged a folder inside a folder in the left column and it fucking disappeared. Had to revert back to classic, otherwise folder was in a black hole. Plus other issues like plugins.
I install classic on every computer I setup now.
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I still think there is a group of people working at microsoft, pulling the strings to dismantle the company from the inside. I haven't seen an update that makes things better for any of their projects in years
Same with Google.
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Has anyone tried the new Atari Outlook? You want open that in Atari outlook?
Nah! I use shoelace outlook exclusively. I know its deprecated but just pull the chord a little and it's as good as new!
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Same with Google.
I imagine Microsoft has the same problem as Google, which is internally prioritizing flashy new things over maintaining useful old things. That's why Google comes out with so many new things and kills so many old things.
If you want a raise/promotion/etc., you have a better shot at it by bragging about the new feature/service you launched than bragging about maintaining the relatively stable project that's been running for years but could use some improvements.
It's a really bad structure imo and I hate that Google and other companies prioritize like that
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I still think there is a group of people working at microsoft, pulling the strings to dismantle the company from the inside. I haven't seen an update that makes things better for any of their projects in years
Same with the US govt.
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Bullshit, new outlook is total garbage. I dragged a folder inside a folder in the left column and it fucking disappeared. Had to revert back to classic, otherwise folder was in a black hole. Plus other issues like plugins.
I install classic on every computer I setup now.
I think the parents suggestion was to not use it.
However, it's a bit like avoiding water on a boat given how pervasive the cancer is.
Most of the MS suite is pretty awful. OG OneNote was a good idea. VSCode is ok, just quite slow. Oh LSP is fantastic, I believe that was developed by MS.
The Office Suite and PowerBI are terrible, by 2025 standards it's glossy trash.
