Microsoft offers Registry workaround for broken Outlook 2016 Search

Microsoft has confirmed a clicking and scrolling bug on Classic Outlook. Aside from that, the Redmond company has also shared a workaround regarding another Outlook issue that started affecting users a few days ago. The problem is with the Server assisted search function in Outlook 2016. It explains:

ISSUE

 

Starting around January 16th, 2025, Outlook 2016 MSI stopped showing the sender in search results and the search results appear as unread.

 

For example, when you search your inbox with Outlook 2016, you find the sender is not appearing under the From column in the reading pane search results as shown below. The search results also appear as unread.

Microsoft notes that it is currently investigating the issue, and it is being tracked under ID MC976059 on the Microsoft 365 (M365) Service health dashboard. If you are an M365 administrator and the ID number seems familiar, that is because Microsoft had recently assigned the same ID for the case overlooking the deployment of New Outlook on Windows 10.

A workaround involving the Registry editor has been provided so that Exchange Server-assisted Search can be disabled.

STATUS: INVESTIGATING

 

This issue is also tracked in the M365 Service Health Dashboard as MC976059. The service team identified a recent code change that appears to be resulting in impact. They are in the process of reverting this change in the internal testing environment to validate this theory, at which point they will deploy the fix throughout the affected environment.

 

If you urgently need to work around the issue, you can temporarily disable service search.

 

WORKAROUND

 

Temporarily disable Server Assisted Search, which Outlook would fall back to the legacy Windows Desktop Search, with the following registry key:

 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\policies\Microsoft\office\16.0\outlook\search

 

DWORD: DisableServerAssistedSearch 

 

Value: 1

You can find the support article here on Microsoft's official website.

Source

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