Hello everyone!
We’ve noticed a new, strange issue with a recent Microsoft Office update, changing how Outlook presents its auto-complete options for mail recipients. Outlook now has a large dropdown box with little profile boxes, taking up significantly more screen real estate than the small list it has had before. Some people have even reported the selection box extending upwards instead of downwards, going off the screen. Here’s a before and after glimpse:
While I am always a fan of progress and advancing technology, some people may not consider this an upgrade, and unfortunately, there isn’t a convenient selection in the Options section to decide which presentation you want. If this update is enough of a hassle to you, you may want to find a way to undo it. The good news is a few places on the internet have posted a solution.
Here’s the bad news: If you’re on an older version of Microsoft Office, 2019 or 2016, as opposed to the subscription-based Office 365, the solution is quite a bit of work. Changing the issue with Office 365 looks to be as easy as changing a registry entry. If you’re running one of the older versions, however, the steps are more involved. You’ll have to rollback your installation to a previous build, which can take quite a bit of time, and requires reconfirming your registration for the license.
First, you’ll need to turn off your updates in the options, and rollback your installation. This often involves logging in to the Microsoft account that has the Office license registered to it, and reconfirming the license. You may need to repair the installation as part of the process as well, and my experience shows that this can take over 20 minutes in some cases.
If you don’t care too much about this change, and find it a minor hindrance or even don’t notice at all, then I would not suggest trying to rollback your version to fix the bug (or… mandatory feature?). It is likely Microsoft will put out an update in the next week or two to fix the problems and possibly add new functionality.
Good Computing,
Benjamin Gratch
