new Outlook

The new version of Outlook has not proved as popular as Microsoft would have liked, and the company has just been forced to admit to another problem with the email client.

Microsoft has published a warning about a problem with open Excel file attachments, noting that the issue has been around for about two weeks. The cause appears to be the use of non-ASCII characters in file names, and a fix is in the works.

Users of classic Outlook for Windows have been complaining since last year that Microsoft's email client has turned into a massive resource hog. Months later, the company has conceded that the complaints are justified.

Microsoft is eager for everyone to move away from the classic version of Outlook to the newly updated edition of the app, and there have been suspicions voiced that high CPU usage is an underhand tactic to encourage the move. But having acknowledged the problem, Microsoft says that it is working to come up with a fix.

Windows 10 may not have long left to live (officially, at least), but this does not seem to be stopping Microsoft from using the operating system to piss people off. There are still a few months of updates for Windows 10, and the most recent is the cumulative KB5051974 update.

In addition to one of the last batch of security fixes Windows 10 users can expect, the KB5051974 update sees Microsoft doing -- once again -- that thing which wins it few friends: forcibly installing apps. This time around it is the new Outlook for Windows app that’s been force-fed to users.

The Mail and Calendar apps in Windows 11 have not been the recipients of much love -- either from users who find them limited and awkward, nor from Microsoft which has not updated the software for an age.

The company has already announced that the separate Mail and Calendar apps will be discontinued starting in September next year, with the new Outlook for Windows app being touted as the replacement. Despite the ill feeling towards the older apps, the announcement has been met with such a backlash that Microsoft has been forced to rethink its plans.

In recent days the yet-to-be-released successor to Windows 11's Outlook app leaked online. Called One Outlook, this unreleased beta version is known as Project Monarch.

This is not the first we have heard of One Outlook; it was originally scheduled for release last year, but the launch was delayed. But the leak was the first time anyone has been able to try out the app, but Microsoft has issued a warning saying that this is an "unsupported early test version" which is missing features.

Outlook is currently available in various versions, and Microsoft is looking to consolidate them into the aptly named One Outlook. Previously referred to as Project Monarch, the app includes not only an email component, but also a calendar.

Originally due for release last year, it is now looking as though One Outlook is going to be available for limited testing some time in the spring. Wider scale beta testing is expected to start in the summer, but the timetable remains flexible.