Microsoft new Outlook takes 10 seconds to do what Outlook Classic does instantly

Adam-Hincu

2026 Microsoft software in a nutshell. More clutter, less performance.

anthk

Thank JS and Electron supporters for that.

1970-01-01

Peak Outlook was 2016, right before the 365 mess.

netsharc

Started a new job, with Windows 11. notepad.exe now takes 3 to 4 seconds to load on my work system... (even after closing the last tab and reopening the program). Hah, it even has in-app purchases, for AI writing...

patates

> Outlook is based on WebView2, and like all web apps, it’s slow Fastmail also has a web based email client, which is as fast as (if not faster than) Outlook Classic. The new Outlook is just bad. Load order is wrong, it renders everything on every window, loads unnecessary data, etc. Plain annoying.

nticompass

Wait, which Outlook is this? Is it "new Outlook" or "Outlook (new)"?

m132

And to think that the "old" Outlook's splash screen is there for a reason: it used to take a while to open before SSDs became commonplace! Windows in general used to be usable on HDDs; SSDs would blow everyone's pants off making everything open instantly. These days we have 20+ Gbps SSDs without the AHCI latency tax and they're no longer enough to open an e-mail. THAT'S how low the ball has been dropped.

knorker

> like all web apps, it’s slow No, that's a very uninformed take, and contradicted on two fronts: 1. Microsoft's other native apps have gotten unusably slow lately, too. 2. There's definitely plenty of fast web apps. I don't mind snark, but make it factually accurate. This is just Microsoft's poor strategic decision to try to drive as many as possible to Linux. Hell, weren't they bragging recently about managing to make opening the start menu take only a tenth of a second? It should be instant. Maybe they think we'll replace users with AI, too. AI is the only thing slower than Microsoft's UIs lately.

bogometer

Anytime a relative installs a new machine I get the call "What is wrong with outlook?". It's always "new".

mc32

They so screwed Outlook. The stupid thing refuses to respond after switching to a diff network or SSID till it’s completed some synchronization of some kind. The stupid app refuses to come into focus. I really don’t need the freshest view at once. Maybe I just need to look at an open email you dog of an app! Why did they castrate Outlook? Does MS hate itself? What in the name of shit are they thinking? Who does this make happy?

FinnKuhn

The "free" version of outlook that replaced Mail is so bad that it made me finally switch to Thunderbird and I don't see myself going back anytime soon. The only thing I'm missing sometimes is the Copilot integration, but copy and paste with Thunderbird is still faster than using Copilot in Outlook...

fg137

The biggest issue I have with new outlook is meeting notifications (reminders) on Windows. I see a freaking loading screen with the Outlook logo for 5 seconds before the window is updated with the meeting name along with a button to dismiss it. Yes that's everything in there. How does Microsoft think this is ok?

instakill

new Google homepage takes [many] seconds to do what classic Google did instantly

SoKamil

Outlook for Mac is surprisingly good, though. Every interaction feels (and is) native. Kudos to the team. I think this is same team that maintains Office Suite for Mac. I hope to see Teams for Mac in the future. Current Teams app is dogshit.

DaedalusII

its faster to use an LLM + MCP (chatgpt or claude integration cloud integration) to search your email than to use the search field in the web browser now its also possibly cheaper than the monthly licence fee for the desktop app suite

lenerdenator

Honestly, for most intents and purposes, we could have just stopped with Outlook 2010. I'd have paid $5/mo for security patches.

nzoschke

Genuinely curious how quality is so poor at MS. Tech debt and deadlines and red tape? This is the company that invented the term dogfooding and forced everyone to use Exchange until all the bugs were worked out. I’m building a next gen web mail app at work and there are a ton of UX edge cases but the performance of the core UI is not rocket science. I’m looking for help play testing to squash bugs, improve the last mile of performance, and to add Outlook support. https://housecat.com/ The incentive is the mail app is “malleable” so you can craft custom workflows and UI widgets to help you get to inbox zero.

stainablesteel

microsoft is an amazing study in managed decline that people still buy this, businesses still rely on their infrastructure, and their stock is somehow world-class is outstanding for the fact that its operating system can't do what middle school level coders can accomplish

Sharlin

The Outlook web app breaks browser navigation, I thought we had that figured out in SPAs like, more than a decade ago. But it does load almost-instantly (less than a second) so that's nice at least.

sgt

Similar one about WhatsApp on Windows. What a shitshow. https://www.windowslatest.com/2026/06/13/whatsapp-is-eating-...