I checked the list of add-ins that I have installed for Outlook and I’m a bit surprised how many I have installed.

I thought I was just using “plain vanilla” Outlook without add-ins but apparently Outlook already comes with some pre-installed and some others were added by installing other applications.

I now try to “weed out” the additional add-ins hoping that it will improve my Outlook startup time as it is fast when launching Outlook in Safe Mode.

Which add-ins do I really need and which are safe to disable?

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I'm using the Rules and Alerts function extensively and I must have over a 100 rules by now to sort my incoming and outgoing emails.

For that amount of rules, the Rules Manager/Editor really is too small and cumbersome to use. For instance, there is no easy way to search or filter them and sorting/positioning them takes forever with pressing the Move Up/Move Down buttons repeatedly.

Am I pushing the limits of Outlook here? How many rules would you recommend and which alternatives do I have?

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I’m getting some weird graphics anomalies with my screen when using Outlook.

For instance, the screen suddenly turns completely black or white, and when I move over those spaces with my mouse, the Outlook UI starts to appear again but only in those places.

At other times, text in the Ribbon and Folder Pane overlap or folders appear empty even when they are not.

Restarting Outlook fixes it temporarily but I’d like to fix it permanently.

I was recommended to “disable hardware graphics acceleration” but I can’t find that option anywhere.

How do I solve this issue?

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In the regular Outlook for Desktop, I’ve successfully disabled the option to automatically mark messages as read.

However, occasionally, I use Outlook on the Web (OWA) as well and it doesn’t seem to pick up the setting as configured in Outlook.

How can I prevent Outlook on the Web to automatically mark my emails as read?

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After composing my email, I changed my signature. When doing that it deleted all the text from the message.

What happened and how can I prevent this from happening again?

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I've got some Quick Parts that I don't use anymore but I'm not able to delete them. The option "Organize and Delete" is grayed out.

How am I supposed to delete Quick Parts?

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While composing a message I've clicked on the Flag icon before sending. After sending it I cannot find it in my For Follow Up folder. The flag also looks different; it doesn't have a colored border.

What is the difference between the flags and why doesn't it show in my For Follow Up Search Folder?

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How do I create a desktop shortcut for Outlook in Windows 10?

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How do I create a desktop shortcut for Outlook in Windows 11?

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We are using a customized Contacts form in Outlook for which we’ve defined some additional fields.

We now want to use these custom contacts fields within a Mail Merge. However, upon composing the message, these fields are not available for the Mail Merge from within Word.

How can we use these Custom Contact Fields?

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