How do I disable advertising in Outlook 2019?

Jax Planet 61 Reputation points
2020-09-04T16:28:24.407+00:00

Specifically, there is a yellow banner advertising, "EXPERIENCE MICROSOFT 365 Keep your files safe, secure, and accessible with 1 TB of cloud storage. Try Microsoft 365. Start free trial"

Thank you in advance!

Outlook Management
Outlook Management
Outlook: A family of Microsoft email and calendar products.Management: The act or process of organizing, handling, directing or controlling something.
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  1. Jade Liang-MSFT 9,951 Reputation points Microsoft Employee
    2020-09-07T11:55:39.467+00:00

    Hi @Jax Planet ,

    there is a yellow banner advertising

    Is this yellow banner mentioned here displayed under the Tool Bars?
    And is it only displayed in certain specific situation? Do other Office programs(Word, Excel) also have this issue?

    As I know, this message banner always displays security alerts when there is potentially unsafe active content and it's on by default. Since my Outlook client doesn't display this alerts, it seems that I couldn't reproduce your issue.

    According to your issue, please try to turn off the optional connected experiences firstly in Outlook as Andy mentioned.

    If the issue still exist and it also happened on other Office programs, according to my research, there's a way to turn off this alert in Excel and the setting would be universal to other Office programs. So it's suggested to turn off this alert in your Excel (open an excel file>click File>Options>Trust Center>Trust Center Settings>Message Bar>uncheck show policy tip), then close your Excel and reopen your Outlook to check if the issue has any difference.

    Please try to troubleshoot your issue by the above methods first. If the issue has any update, please feel free to post back.

    If the response is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.
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    1 person found this answer helpful.
  2. Andy David - MVP 141.1K Reputation points MVP
    2020-09-04T16:47:26.257+00:00

    I believe this may do it:

    Trust Center Under Options:

    22666-image.png

    22734-image.png

    22753-image.png

    Uncheck that option and see if that removes it.

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  3. Bill Bright 1 Reputation point
    2020-09-17T14:23:01.297+00:00

    I have been trying for several weeks to disable these VERY ANNOYING "adware" banner ads to no avail. I have Office Home and Business 2016 and this banner message appears in Word, Excel and Outlook. I don't use the other apps but I am sure they are "foisted" on us there too. :(

    It does not appear each time these apps are opened. I would say about every 2 or 3 days. This is the type of advertising nonsense I expect with freeware or shareware - not a product I paid a good deal of money for.

    And I certainly do not expect or want these unwanted to ads to keep coming back, over and over and over and over again once I dismiss them! I've been a long time supporter and defender of Microsoft products. But it seems once again, another misguided, poorly designed and badly executed marketing tactic misfires as this is NOT doing Microsoft's public image any good.

    I have followed Andy's guide to disable all connected experiences and am now in a "hurry up and wait" status to see if they return. I will come back in a couple days to let you know - sooner if they return before then.

    tGjbOYJ.jpg

  4. Bill Bright 1 Reputation point
    2020-09-18T13:54:23.953+00:00

    Well, I didn't have to wait a couple days. :( This morning I got another unwanted "adware" banner ad, this time in Excel. This one slightly different but essentially the same. That is, same yellow banner but text now says:

    WORK ACROSS MULTIPLE DEVICES Try Microsoft 365 with premium Office apps, advanced security, and up to 6 TB cloud storage for your family. Try free for 1 month

    For the record, after following Andy's guide in Outlook, I looked to see how that affected the settings in Excel and Word. The path to drill down to the applicable sections under Privacy Settings is slightly different in each app but intuitive enough to follow. After making the changes in Outlook, I saw those options were already unchecked in Excel and Word too. So I was optimistic yesterday the problem was resolved. But no. :(

    Hmmm, I just noticed the "Try Microsoft 365... ...family." sentence is a link. When I hover over it, a text bubble pops up and says "Click for more details". So I did - and nothing happened. Gee whiz. :( You cannot see it in my screen shot above but there is an X in the far right of the adware banner. At least that works to clear it this session.

    Also, I note over at Woody's there's a couple threads by other unhappy users running on this issue, including this one: https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/how-do-i-disable-microsoft-ad-in-office-2016-excel/#post-2297280

  5. Bill Bright 1 Reputation point
    2020-10-01T13:09:05.82+00:00

    Not sure what has happened but since the above reply, I have not seen any adware banner ads. However, I note I have been signed out of my MS account since about that same time (I use a local account for W10). I just signed in to post this reply so now, "hurry up and wait" to see if the banner ads return.