restore-windows-mail.md

UPDATE

MAY 2025: OUTLOOK NOW NO LONGER WORKS WITH THIS CLIENT.

SEP 2025: STORE NOW ENFORCES AUTOUPDATES, YOU CAN ONLY DISABLE IT FOR UP TO FIVE WEEKS. Added extra step to prevent this. Thanks @misaka00251.

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REVERTING OUTLOOK BACK TO WINDOWS MAIL AND KEEPING IT FOREVER

A small guide all in one place for someone googling this, written out in steps my parents could follow.

STEP 1: GETTING RID OF OUTLOOK FOR GOOD

I've tried a couple of ways but this one works best. It installs a dummy app in place of the Outlook Appx which will make the Windows Store autoinstall fail 100% of the time.

Instructions:

0. Uninstall Outlook if you currently have it installed.
1. Go to https://github.com/matej137/OutlookRemover/releases
2. Download RemoveOutlook.zip from the Assets view
3. Unpack the ZIP file
4. Right click the outlook.bat batch file and select "Run as administrator"
5. DONE! You can now remove the files

NOTE: If you ever want to revert this, just uninstall the 8.00kb app called "Outlook (new)" from Apps & Features in Settings or Programs & Features in Control Panel.

STEP 2: DISABLING MICROSOFT STORE AUTO-UPDATES

You want to do this to protect what we will do in step 3, and keep our Mail app bundle from getting overwritten.

1. Open Group Policy Editor (search for "group policy" and select Edit Group Policy)
2. In the sidebar, navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Store.
3. Double click "Turn off Automatic Download and Install of updates", set it to Enabled and then press OK.

In the future, do NOT press "Check for Updates" in the Updates & Downloads section of the Microsoft Store, because it actually installs all available updates, not just check for them. Simply opening this page will check for updates, and then installing them can be a manual decision.

STEP 3: INSTALLING OLD MAIL APP BUNDLE

Full credit goes to this reddit post.

1. Go to: https://store.rg-adguard.net/
2. There, paste this: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9wzdncrfhvqm?hl=en
3. Click on the dropdown that says "RP" and change it to Retail.
4. Hit the checkbox to search.
5. Now find the file that is called exactly this: microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps_16005.14326.21422.0_neutral_~_8wekyb3d8bbwe.appxbundle. You can use Ctrl+F and search for "422" to find it easily. You want the .appxbundle, not the .BlockMap.
6. Click past any security warnings your web browser gives you to continue download.
7. Open and install.

This will give you a version of Mail that not only doesn't have the yellow Outlook banner up top, but is a fully functional mail client that cannot be disabled remotely.

If you didn't do Step 2 or accidentally ever update it, you can use the appxbundle you downloaded to reinstall and rollback your Mail version to a functional state. Pressing

Unfortunately, seems to have stopped working for me the day I got this comment. Can access everything but my Outlook account in Mail now.

Thank you, still works! (Microsoft store disabled)

@akechi-haruka If you don't mind my asking, which email provider works for you? I'm no longer able to connect to outlook or gmail.

Try this:

Group Policy Editor can be modified by locating Turn off Automatic Download and Install of updates in Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Store.

I use iCloud and it still works.

I am recieving an error when trying to install it: App Installer failed to install package dependencies. Ask the developer for package.
Anyone have info on package dependencies?