Is Microsoft making choices on users' behalf without telling us?

Scott McMeekin 0 Reputation points
2026-11-11T18:54:21.45+00:00

After a recent update, I discovered that my emails were looking odd, because the "immersive reader" setting had been turned on. I shut it off, but each time I install new updates, it gets turned back on. I feel pretty certain that I didn't select this option, which (if true) begs the question: Are Microsoft engineers sometimes deciding to take it on themselves to change user preferences on users' behalf, when doing updates?

It can feel as though Microsoft thinks it knows our preferences better than we do. And, because the look at feel of applications often seems to swing back and forth from update to update, it can also feel as the the MS update teams are disagreeing amongst themselves on what users "should" prefer. Is something like that occurring and, if so, what it the best means of indicating to MS that a view that users should be allowed to decide for ourselves?

Outlook | Windows | Classic Outlook for Windows | For business
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  1. Ryan-N 16,950 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-11-11T19:03:58.3233333+00:00

    Hi Scott,

    Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A forum.

    Thank you for sharing this information.

    I understand that having this setting repeatedly turn itself back on after each update can be inconvenient and affect your experience when using Outlook.

    To help ensure that your feedback and experience reach the application development team more effectively, I recommend sharing this issue through Outlook's Feedback feature.

    You can do this by following these steps:

    Help > Feedback > Report a problem

    User's image

    Submitting feedback this way can help the development team better understand users' experiences and expectations, allowing them to consider appropriate improvements in future updates.

     If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to share them in the comments on this post so I can continue to support you.

    I look forward to continuing the conversation.

    Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread. 

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  2. Scott McMeekin 0 Reputation points
    2026-11-11T20:06:07.75+00:00

    Thanks for this, Ryan. I will do so.

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