Microsoft said last week that it will replace Windows' Mail and Calendar apps with Outlook for Windows. It's a bad idea for several reasons.

Microsoft’s Outlook email service was down for Outlook.com as well as Outlook mobile apps and desktop programs.

Outlook email users found themselves without access for several hours Wednesday and Thursday when the service went down.

Microsoft will retire the Windows Mail and Calendar applications on Windows 10 and Windows 11 at the end of the year, first auto-migrating users to the new Outlook for Windows app in August.

The suggestion to "Try the new Outlook" in Windows Mail is the precursor to what will be a forced transition for Microsoft users sometime in 2024.

Microsoft announced last year that it would be retiring the Windows Mail & Calendar apps in favor of the new Outlook at the end of 2024. As of January 1, these apps are no longer functional and ...

Several thousand Microsoft Outlook users ran into issues with the email platform, with some reporting problems like loading ...

Microsoft’s service portal confirmed the e-mail service’s website, mobile and desktop versions are all experiencing issues.

Designed to replace the current Mail and Calendar apps, the new Outlook can only be removed after it's been installed.

But Outlook covers more than just email — it’s got a built-in calendar too, and Microsoft’s plan is to ditch the existing Mail and Calendar apps for Windows and merge them both into Outlook.

Microsoft is investigating an Outlook bug causing desktop app crashes, high system resource usage, and preventing users from logging into their accounts.