The end of Windows Calendar, Contacts and Mail is fast approaching

Microsoft is ending support for the popular Windows Calendar, Windows Contacts and Windows Mail apps on December 31 of this year. Microsoft is offering users the new Outlook as a replacement.

A Microsoft support article explains the end of support and its effects. "Support for Windows Mail, Calendar and Contacts will end on December 31, 2024," Microsoft writes there. The company is currently in the process of migrating existing users to the new Outlook for Windows.

Concrete effects

After December 31, users will no longer be able to send or receive emails with Windows Mail and Calendar. "Every local email, calendar entry and saved contacts in Mail, Calendar and Contacts will remain exportable if users follow the steps" in the instructions, Microsoft explains further. Users should therefore switch to the new Outlook. A switch in the settings under "General" - "About Outlook" can then be used to return to Windows Mail and Calendar if required.

However, the end of support also means that Microsoft will not provide any security updates for the Windows apps. It therefore makes sense to switch to supported applications.

Microsoft had already announced the end of support for the popular Windows apps in the middle of the year. Old emails and entries should only be accessible in read-only mode, which according to an initial schedule should be completed by the end of September. However, the deadline of December 31 is apparently correct.

The new Outlook is a web app that relies on server-side services to process emails. These have to end up in Microsoft's cloud –. To do this, the new Outlook transfers IMAP log-in data to Microsoft's servers, which then retrieve users' emails from the IMAP servers. One of the biggest points of criticism is the lack of support for PST data files. Since November, however, read access to PST files can be tested in the new Outlook – Microsoft has brought forward PST support in the roadmap. "Users can open .pst files, read their emails in the .pst files and also search them. All calendar, contact and task entries in the .pst files are available, but cannot be accessed with the preview version. Future releases will expand the supported PST functions," writes Microsoft in the roadmap entry updated last week.

(dmk)