When will new outlook allow for files to open in the desktop app instead of browser?

Question

When will new outlook allow for files to open in the desktop app instead of browser?

Eli Angen 5

From the information I can find this has been flagged as an issue since release.

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Answer 1

Liora D 18,900 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Dear @Eli Angen,

I hope you’re having a good day.

Thank you for raising this question.

Based on your description, I understand that you are referring to the experience in New Outlook for Windows where files open in a browser instead of the desktop application.

From both Microsoft's documentation and my own testing, I have found that the behavior depends heavily on how the file was attached or shared.

In my test environment:

If a file is attached directly from Browse this computer (a traditional email attachment), the first interaction typically opens the file locally and then provides options to continue working with it in the desktop application. In many cases, users can open the attached file directly using the desktop Office application installed on the device.
If the file is shared as a OneDrive or SharePoint link, New Outlook generally follows the cloud collaboration workflow. In that scenario, the file usually opens in the web experience, and users may then see options to continue working in the desktop application depending on the file type and configuration.

This distinction is important because modern Microsoft 365 collaboration is increasingly based on cloud links rather than traditional attachments. As a result, two files that appear similar in an email can behave quite differently depending on whether they are attached files or cloud-hosted links.

Because of this, I'm not certain that the behavior you're seeing is necessarily caused by a missing feature. It may depend on the specific type of file sharing involved.

If I have misunderstood your concern, could you help me better understand the scenario by providing a little more detail?

For example:

Are the files being sent as traditional email attachments or as OneDrive/SharePoint links?
Which file types are affected (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, etc.)?
What exactly happens when you open the file today?

I would be very happy to look into it further once I better understand the workflow you are referring to.

Thank you again for taking the time to share your feedback, and I hope you have a wonderful day. I look forward to your update if you'd like to provide additional details.

Warm regards,

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Eli Angen 5 Reputation points

2026-06-25T14:29:35.2466667+00:00

It's specifically the case of a sharepoint or onedrive file. In teams or classic outlook I can set the default action to open those files in the desktop app. In new outlook they open in the browser and then I have to click through to open the file in the app. This slows down work, and often results in the same file being open in both the browser and the app.
Liora D 18,900 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-06-25T14:58:17.3033333+00:00
Dear @Eli Angen,

Thank you for your quick follow-up. I believe I now have a much clearer understanding of your concern.

Based on your explanation, I agree that this is not really about traditional email attachments but rather about SharePoint and OneDrive files shared as cloud links. In Teams and Classic Outlook, users can configure a preference for these files to open directly in the desktop application, while New Outlook currently follows a different workflow.

Speaking personally as a user, I have noticed that there are several long-standing conveniences from Classic Outlook that many people rely on every day but that have not yet been fully replicated in New Outlook. The ability to open SharePoint and OneDrive files directly in the desktop application by default is, in my opinion, one of those examples.

As a community moderator, I cannot participate in product development, influence roadmap decisions, or submit feature requests directly to the Outlook engineering team on behalf of users. However, as a user, I completely understand and support this type of feedback. I also hope Microsoft continues to close the remaining workflow gaps between Classic Outlook and New Outlook, especially where long-established features helped improve productivity.

For this specific scenario, the documentation I was able to review continues to describe the current cloud-file experience and the available file-opening preferences for Teams and Classic Outlook. However, I was unable to find any documentation describing an equivalent setting in New Outlook that would allow SharePoint and OneDrive links to always open directly in the desktop application by default.

To help ensure that this request reaches the product team, I would strongly encourage submitting feedback through: Help > Feedback > Make a suggestion

When submitting feedback, it may be helpful to describe the exact workflow impact you mentioned:

SharePoint/OneDrive links always opening in the browser first.

Additional clicks required to reach the desktop application.

The possibility of the same document ending up open in both the browser and desktop app.

Loss of the file-opening preference available in Teams and Classic Outlook.

Feedback submitted through the application is one of the primary channels used by Microsoft to evaluate product improvements and prioritize user requests.

I hope this information helps clarify the current state of the feature and confirms that you are not simply overlooking a setting in New Outlook.

Thank you again for taking the time to explain the scenario so clearly, and I wish you a wonderful day.

If this reply helped clarify the situation, you may also consider marking it as the Accepted Answer. Doing so can help other community members who run into the same limitation understand the current behavior more quickly and find the relevant discussion.