2025 is proving to be a year of cleanup for Microsoft. The Windows giant is carrying out a massive cleanup of applications and services in order to eliminate the app redundancy it has encountered over the years. This year, we’ll see the end of Windows 10, the end of Skype, and the disappearance of many other applications that have been with us since the birth of Windows 10. One of the last to leave the ship is what, for me, was one of the best: Mail and Calendar.
With the arrival of Windows 10, Microsoft made a strong commitment to modern, UWP apps. These apps, similar to those we use on our mobile devices, allow users to have applications optimized for all types of PCs without having to download different versions.
While the concept of modern apps is still alive and well in Windows 11, and more and more apps are making the jump to this model, it was truly innovative and made sense with the arrival of Windows 10 back in 2015. However, Microsoft has found that, over time, it has ended up with two or more apps that do the same thing. And it has been forced to kill one of them.
Goodbye to Mail and Calendar
The same thing that happened with Skype and Teams has happened to Microsoft with the Mail and Calendar app. In the latest versions of Windows 11, the Windows giant has begun promoting its new modern app, Outlook, to offer a multi-platform email client within its operating system.
But this app directly conflicts with Mail and Calendar. And, broadly speaking, it does the same thing. That’s why Microsoft has decided to kill off the oldest of them all. The closure of this app shouldn’t come as a surprise, as the company warned in December of last year that this was going to happen. But it seems the closure has come sooner than expected.
Although this app could no longer send emails as of December 31, 2024, it could receive messages from associated accounts. However, yesterday, Microsoft decided to shut down this app, also blocking the ability to receive emails. For now, the block only affects Hotmail and Outlook accounts, although Gmail and other email accounts will also stop working in the coming days.
When you open the app, a message appears, like the one we just saw, recommending that you export your data and switch to Microsoft’s new email app: Outlook. However, even if you manage to access the app, you won’t be able to use it to send or receive emails.
A bittersweet ending
Personally, this was one of the best apps Microsoft released with Windows 10. And while the Outlook app isn’t bad either, it’s much heavier, more complicated, and if you don’t have Microsoft 365, it has ads. It’s lost everything.
If you were using this application, my recommendation is to forget about Microsoft and opt for a decent email client, like Thunderbird. It’s much freer, independent, and ad-free.
