Microsoft Says Bug In Classic Outlook Hides the Mouse Pointer (bleepingcomputer.com) 38
joshuark quotes a report from BleepingComputer: Microsoft is investigating a known issue that causes the mouse pointer to disappear in the classic Outlook desktop email client for some users. This bug has been acknowledged almost two months after the first reports started surfacing online, with users saying that Outlook became unusable after the mouse pointer vanished while using the app.
[...] Microsoft explained in a recent support document that the mouse pointer (and in some cases the cursor) will suddenly vanish as users move it across Outlook's interface. "When using classic Outlook, you may find that the mouse pointer or mouse cursor disappears as you move the pointer over the Outlook interface," it said. "Although the mouse pointer is not there, the email in the message list will change color as you hover over it. This issue has also been reported with OneNote and other Microsoft 365 apps to a lesser degree."
Microsoft added that the Outlook team is investigating the issues and will provide updates as more information becomes available. While a timeline for a permanent fix is not yet available, Microsoft has offered three temporary workarounds that require affected users to click an email in the message list when the cursor disappears, which may cause it to reappear. Alternatively, switching to PowerPoint, clicking into an editable area, and then returning to Outlook may also restore the mouse pointer.
[...] Microsoft explained in a recent support document that the mouse pointer (and in some cases the cursor) will suddenly vanish as users move it across Outlook's interface. "When using classic Outlook, you may find that the mouse pointer or mouse cursor disappears as you move the pointer over the Outlook interface," it said. "Although the mouse pointer is not there, the email in the message list will change color as you hover over it. This issue has also been reported with OneNote and other Microsoft 365 apps to a lesser degree."
Microsoft added that the Outlook team is investigating the issues and will provide updates as more information becomes available. While a timeline for a permanent fix is not yet available, Microsoft has offered three temporary workarounds that require affected users to click an email in the message list when the cursor disappears, which may cause it to reappear. Alternatively, switching to PowerPoint, clicking into an editable area, and then returning to Outlook may also restore the mouse pointer.
well frick (Score:2)
This has been happening on the Outlook via Web interface for a long time. Total PIA, it is.
Actually, cursor and mouse handling by that web app is a god-awful mess.
Easy fix: stop using Microsoft products (Score:1)
The last Microsoft product I actually liked using was an ergonomic keyboard, a few years back.
The last time I used a Microsoft product was for work but it was a Microsoft shop with the entire Office suite including Teams (ugh). You could include GitHub and LinkedIn but I don't use these much anymore, their post acquisition versions have taken a hit from what made them nice, especially LinkedIn.
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Thanks for your "easy" fix. I've forwarded your email to the CIO of the Fortune500 I work for. I'm sure we'll be rid of Microsoft by the end of the week. /s
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they don’t know what’s wrong? why? (Score:5, Insightful)
are they using claude to design and implement their products now? did they lay off their experts?
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are they using claude to design and implement their products now? did they lay off their experts?
Hey! They still have experts! Heck, I just heard one of them talking to Claude about a cool new fix for this. Was mumbling something about mouse tail emojis..
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> are they using claude to design and implement their products now?
Worse - they're using Co-Pilot ;-)
Is it "Classic"? (Score:4, Interesting)
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Nothing is keyboard friendly anymore. Even the simple insert menu shortcut Alt+I has been taken over to open fucking CoPilot.
Outlook is a dumpster fire (Score:5, Insightful)
I've been saying for years that the Outlook team should all be fire and Outlook permanently retired. M$ should start from scratch using no one that was involved with Outlook as a product. Knowing M$ they'd just buy an email client and calendaring client and go from there. There's no way it could be any worse that Outlook. The only reason anyone uses Outlook is because it is part of the M$ Office Gordian Knot. I wish my employer would dump it for almost anything else.
Some of the problems:
o Cannot get a new member of a team to have access to the team's calendar
o Some events cannot be deleted, even by the owner
o Some events can be deleted by someone who is not the owner
o Some events show up multiple times as if they are different events. I've seen up to 5 copies of the same meeting!
o By default forces you to use formatted text when writing an email
o Hides email addresses so you don't really know who you are emailing unless you poke around.
o Hard to view message source
o Combines calendar and email functions into one app. making it harder to see both at the same time.
o Maybe it has an alarm function, but I haven't seen it for events. All you get is a notification which can be easy to miss, especially if you have multiple monitors
Please just make it go away!
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You forgot to mention random ficticous meeting cancellations.
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You forgot to mention random ficticous meeting cancellations.
That's actually one of the positives. Nothing better than skipping a meeting for the reason your calendar simply wiped it out.
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I've been saying for years that the Outlook team should all be fire[d] and Outlook permanently retired. M$ should start from scratch using no one that was involved with Outlook as a product. There's no way it could be any worse that Outlook.
They are going down that road (the second part at least, the "starting from scratch" part) with their "New Outlook".
News Flash: It is worse, much worse.
disclaimer, it's possible that they have mothballed that product, I don't use Microsoft's products nowadays.
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I struggle with your comment. Ignoring the ones which I haven't experience (because I believe you they exist), why would you want calendar and email to be separate? They are intimately intertwined in any groupware setting in virtually all ecosystems. There's no reason for them to be separate and I see only downsides in having them separate. Could each be better? Fuck yeah, but that isn't aided by separating what fundamentally are similar functions.
Also hard to view message source, I can count on all the fin
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My computer runs Kubuntu and I log in with the Brave browser
I run Teams, Outlook and the calendar in separate tabs and although Outlook as a web client is not a friendly Email client it does the job.
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Tabs does not mean a separate app. In fact you can open Outlook in two windows and dedicate one to the calendar and one to email if you want, even on the desktop app.
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I really like the times when Outlook just won't get new mail until you restart it. Had this happen to me yesterday when I was trying to MFA.
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However, I open a second window of outlook then have one with the mail view and one with the calendar view, which on enough pixels (4k or multi monitor or both) can be put side by side, so at least that one isn't serious.
Mine works fine (Score:3)
Of course, I'm still happily using Outlook 2019 on a bought and paid for standalone office license. I see no reason to 'upgrade'.
Re: Mine works fine (Score:2)
Microsoft forgot how to make GUI apps. Effectively flushed their entire business empire down the toilet and the world is scrambling to figure out what to do next. Some are running old software. Most are just pushing forward with what Microsoft releases and hoping to delay any decision making. I suspect only a handful will switch away, because for a lot of cases there are not many good alternatives.
Classic? (Score:2)
Outlook is Classic?
Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven must be turning in their graves.
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Bach.
PDQ.
Outlook, Outlook (New) and Outlook (classic). (Score:3)
Great software. And I love how Microsoft deploys it. In my organization it was pot luck. Some ended up with Outlook and Outlook (New). Others with Outlook and Outlook (Classic). We try to uninstall the new Outlook app, but it should just be called Outlook (Zombie), since it comes back from the dead all the time. But me. I am a winner. I ended up with just two Outlook apps, with somewhat similar icons. Real software engineering here, Microsoft. Carry on!
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"Error: keyboard not detected" (Score:2)
"press F1 to continue"
I was sadly forced to use outlook... (Score:2)
Last year at the place I worked, it was fine for a bit, but for a month and a half it broke and badly, the emails being sent were being formatted to be unreadable.
Then the problem quietly went away. The modern software equivalent of gaslighting, I suppose I should be glad that it did, but it's a piece of software they randomly break on an update and then fix is very much Microsofts way.
Why anyone trusts them baffles me.
And with the Artificial Idiocy "revolution" this is only going to get worse...
It's not a bug, it's coercion (Score:1)
They are just trying to coerce you into using the Hotmail web client in Edge instead of the classic Outlook app, which they no longer want to spend the money to maintain.
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the classic Outlook app, which they no longer want to spend the money to maintain.
So, it will gradualy disappear. Leaving nothing but the cursor.
Like a Cheshire Cat.
It is actually a Windows bug, not an Outlook one (Score:2)
You can work around this with editing HKCU\Control Panel\Mouse: MouseTrails to be -1 to get a software rendered cursor, without any visible trails, to make everything work as expected again.
Just
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Very much this.
Probably a stupid assumption, but assuming windows GUI follows a reasonably structured architecture, apps don't and shouldn't explicitly hide/restore the mouse pointer.
You need ... (Score:2)
Outlook became unusable? (Score:2)
Disappearing mouse pointer (Score:1)
Common Issue On Windows AND Linux (Score:2)
I see this all the time on Windows and Linux with no Outlook involvement. I mostly see this happen on Linux.