
Addins, registry hacks and file paths are identical between the four versions. Most of the new features are targeted to business users, not POP and IMAP. Office 2021 is newer than Office 20, but many users won’t get much benefit in upgrading (besides a lighter wallet), especially if they don’t use an Exchange mailbox. If you have Office 365, you have the newest version of Office. Office 2021 is now available, but don’t get “new version envy” if you have Office 2016, 2019 or 365. Search Solution: remove Outlook from Windows Search or set a registry key to use the old, slower built-in search function.


You may not be able to use it to connect to an Exchange server, but it should work fine with POP and IMAP accounts. Some features might not work well (like Instant Search) but it should send and receive mail and handle calendar and contacts ok.

The short version: Yes, older versions of Outlook will work on Windows 11.
