NOTICE: Microsoft's new Outlook client and the Outlook VBO.

[ewilson]

Hello All,

Please be advised that Microsoft's newest Outlook client DOES NOT support COM interop. What that means is the Outlook VBO will not work with this newer Outlook client. See below reference from Microsoft regarding supported features with the new Outlook client software.

Getting started with the new Outlook for Windows 

The solution, at the moment, is to not use Microsoft's latest Outlook client on runtime resources. Alternatively, you could consider using the newer Microsoft 365 - Outlook VBO which leverages Microsoft's Graph API (RESTful web service) instead of COM interop and the Outlook client software.

Cheers,

Eric

[ewilson]

That's interesting since Microsoft has stated there's no COM API capability in the new client, and our previous tests showed exactly that. I wonder if they've made a recent change due to feedback?

Cheers,
Eric

[arghya.b]

Hi @ewilson , is there any update on this? are they made any change to support com API ?

Thanks,

Arghya

[ewilson]

Hello @arghya.b ,

Unfortunately, this still seems to be an issue. There's been no change communicated by Microsoft as to the removal of the COM API from the new Outlook client. Further, our tests with the new client continue to produce ActiveX component exceptions when trying to make any requests against what was the COM API. You'll see the following exception with the new Outlook client:

You may also see an exception like this:

Without reviewing one of the machines @Neel1 uses, I can't explain how this is working in their environment.

Cheers,
Eric 

[Walter.Koller]

Hello,

I think BP customers should be informed about this upcoming change like it was done for MV2/3 extensions. I assume this not only affects Outlook but all of Microsoft 365 (aka Office) applications?

I just came across this topic by accident and more than lucky that out IT department didn't upgrade to newer Office application versions. This would have halted most of our processes for undefined amount of time.

I guess the most important question is: what is "the newest version of Outlook"?  There there any version numbers or any other identification criteria? Somehow I have to explain to IT what versions are critical and should not be installed. Also it helps for our own investigations for learning the differences.

Sorry if this seems to be obvious for some people but other people who just use Office as a tool those info are a bit difficult to grab out of nowhere.

Many thanks in advance

edit: I tried to find more information but all is kind of confusing. 'New Outlook for Windows' sounds more like an application for private individuals rather than an enterprise solution?!

[ewilson]

Hi @Walter.Koller 

Microsoft isn't exactly clear on what constitutes "New Outlook" in terms of version information. Ultimately, the new client is essentially a browser-based (i.e. WebView) client, and that's why there's no support in it for COM.

On my local machine, here's the information I can see when I look at the old vs new client:

Old Outlook Client

New Outlook Client

Keep in mind, these may vary for your environment.

The link I provided in the original post discusses how the new client is enabled using the slider switch in the top right corner of the old client. As far as I know, the new Outlook client is not deployed by default except in some Windows 11 deployments.

Cheers,
Eric

PS - As far as I can tell, this change only applies to Outlook at the moment, but I would fully expect Microsoft to roll something similar out to the rest of Office at some point as they've been trying for some time to get rid of COM.

[Walter.Koller]

@ewilson thanks a lot that's a very valuable information and helps us to explain our challenges to our IT department.

Regards