Microsoft quietly (but aggressively) removing Outlook Classic and replacing it with Outlook New

Microsoft has been aggressively replacing Outlook Classic with Outlook New on newer / newly deployed computers. Outlook Classic is still supported at least 2029 for users with perpetual licenses or Microsoft 365 subscriptions that include desktop apps, so it’s removal is not a part of the Windows 10 End of Life. Details are still kindof sketchy but below is what we believe that we know so far:

• Newish installs. This does not seem to be impacting computers that weren’t deployed recently (so far, it looks like anything deployed before May 2025 may be unaffected).
• There is no warning. Outlook Classic is simply removed and replaced with Outlook New.

We are working with our partners now to develop, test and deploy a workaround to stop this but do not have anything that works consistently yet. The fix is, unfortunately, to manually download and reinstall Outlook Classic but our hope is to prevent Outlook Classic from being removed to begin with.