Handling the New Outlook with Intune

The rollout of the new Outlook has sparked a range of reactions, from excitement to apprehension.
In most cases businesses are not ready to adapt to it yet. And if you're ready, Im' sure you want to do a controlled rollout.

Table of Contents

• Blocking the New Outlook
• Rolling Back the New Outlook
• Removing the built in New Outlook
• How to Deploy the New Outlook with Intune
  • Install the Microsoft Store version of Outlook
  • Install the new Outlook as a Win32 App
• Conclusion

Blocking the New Outlook

To avoid any disruptions in your organization's workflow, you can strategically hide the new Outlook Toggle using Microsoft Intune (or via classic GPO's).

1. Open Intune
2. Navigate to:
   Devices > Windows > Configuration profiles
3. Hit Create
4. Choose:
   Platform: Windows 10 and later
   Profile type: Settings catalog
5. Give the Policy a name (ex. WIN-OutlookNewToggle)
6. Add settings and search for:
   New Outlook
7. Which will show you:
   Hide the “Try the new Outlook” toggle in Outlook (User)
8. That one you have to set to Enabled.
9. Assign the policy to a group and that's it.

Rolling Back the New Outlook

In some cases, users may accidentally switch to the new Outlook. To help them revert back, you can create a Remediation package in Intune that rolls back the app to the classic version.
This package runs for each user and will remove the new Outlook in the user context. If you need to delete the system installed version, which for example comes with the latest Windows 11 release (23H2), head to the next section.

1. Open Intune
2. Navigate to:
   Devices > Windows > Scripts and remediations
3. Hit Create
4. Give the package a name (ex. WIN-PR-U-NewOutlookRemoval) and an optional Description.
5. Upload both the "NEW-Outlook_uninstall-detection.ps1" and "NEW-Outlook_uninstall-remediation.ps1" from the template provided above via my GitHub.
6. For the settings choose:
   • Run this script using the logged-on credentials: Yes
   • Enforce script signature check: No
   • Run script in 64-bit PowerShell: Yes
7. A Scope tag is not needed in most cases.
8. In the Assignments add a group and schedule that suits your needs.
9. That's it. Now we can wait until the remediation runs on our devices.
   

Result of the Remediation

Removing the built in New Outlook

In Windows 11 versions 23H2 and later, the new Outlook app is preinstalled for all users, replacing the default Mail and Calendar apps. I guess for most organizations that not what they want. And like you probably removed the old Mail and Calendar apps in previous builds you can do the same with the new Outlook. Just run the following command during your Autopilot deployment:

Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -AllUsers -Online -PackageName (Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.OutlookForWindows).PackageFullNameCode language: PowerShell (powershell)

How to Deploy the New Outlook with Intune

Once you've thoroughly evaluated the new Outlook and determined it's a suitable choice for your organization, you can seamlessly deploy it to your users using Microsoft Intune.
To deploy the new Outlook you have two choices, either choose the user-based installation via the Microsoft Store or us the Setup.exe provided by Microsoft which will install the New Outlook in the system context, machine wide.

In a future release after the commercial preview stage, new Outlook will be an option in place of the classic Outlook experience for new Microsoft 365 deployments.

Install the Microsoft Store version of Outlook

The easiest way is to use the application type "Microsoft Store app (new)" in Intune.

For that do the following:

1. Open Intune
2. Navigate to:
   Apps > Windows
3. Hit Add and choose Microsoft Store app (new).
4. Now you can search for Outlook.
   The new Outlook will appear as Outlook for Windows (click on it)
5. Depending on your preferences/needs chose system or user deployment.

Install the new Outlook as a Win32 App

Lates Installer for the New Outlook: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2207851

.\Setup.exe --provision true --quiet --start-*Code language: PowerShell (powershell)

Conclusion

By leveraging Microsoft Intune, you can effectively manage the deployment and rollback of the new Outlook, ensuring a seamless email experience for your organization. By carefully considering your user base and their preferences, you can tailor your Intune policies to maintain a productive and efficient workflow. Remember, effective IT management is about empowering users while ensuring organizational stability.