Outlook Users Never Realized the Desperate Need for Colored Folder Icons

The announcement in message center notification MC993229 (31 January, 2025), Microsoft 365 roadmap item 472921) that the new Outlook (or as it’s referred to in the announcement, “the new Microsoft Outlook for Windows desktop” and OWA are allowing users to personalize folder icon colors is in the category of “why” features. Apparently, the idea is to make it easier for people “to visually differentiate and personalize folders.” The feature is available in targeted release tenants and will be generally available worldwide during March 2025.

I don’t want to pour cold water on innovation, but the thought did go through my mind that the Outlook classic desktop client has survived and prospered since 1997 without different colored folder icons. The same is true for OWA, introduced around the same time, and seemingly unaffected by monocolor folder icons.

Using Outlook Colored Folder Icons

But now we have colored folder icons and the world is a better place. At least, it might be if you’re not color blind (like me) and have difficulties differentiating between nuanced shades. In the spirit of adventure, I resolved to bring a dash of color into my email life and set out to update some folders.

The first thing to note is that you can leave Outlook alone and it will use automatic colors. In other words, Outlook chooses how to present the folder icon. I’m not quite sure what color is used, but it’s functional and never caused me a moment’s worry until now, mostly because I never thought about choosing a new color for folder icons.

In Figure 1, the Archive folder is selected, and its folder icon is colored silver, one of the options in the folder icon palette. Some of the other folders have new colors too. Whether this makes those folders more recognizable or visually differentiated is in the eyes of the beholder.

To reveal the option to choose a new color for a folder icon, click the […] folder menu alongside its name. To produce the screen shot shown in Figure 1, I selected the folder menu for the Sent Items folder. As you can see, Sent Items still uses the automatic default chosen by Outlook. To update the folder icon color, choose one of the available selection like cranberry, light teal, or lime (note to self, who would have thought that I would ever write about applying lime as a color to any Outlook component?).

In any case, it all works, and you can spend a few minutes colorizing your folder icons.

Filers versus Pilers

I don’t know what impetus pushed the Outlook team to introduce colored folder icons at this point in the product’s development. It seems like many users eschew the use of folders apart from the default set because they depend on search to find items of interest when necessary. Piling items into a small set of folders is a habit encouraged by reliable search, something that took Outlook a long time to acquire.

I’m a filer in that I use folders to organize information. I’m not as diligent about filing as I once was in the days when search worked intermittently. Smaller mailbox quotas meant that it was sometimes necessary to clear out lots of items to make space for new email. Large mailbox quotas and retention processing have largely taken care of the need to delete items from mailboxes manually. I guess we need to fill the time once spent removing unwanted debris from mailboxes with other activities, like choosing colors for folder icons.

But Seriously

Some will criticize the Outlook developers for spending valuable engineering time implementing features like folder icon colors. If Microsoft is really serious about convincing the curmudgeons who use Outlook classic to move to the new client before support ceases for Outlook classic in 2029, shouldn’t they be solving the major pain points that stop people switching? Of course, Microsoft should deliver solutions like solid PST support (due imminently according to MC966639), but assigning a bunch of extra engineers to work on the pain points might not create solutions any faster. Which is why the engineers need to be kept occupied by pushing forward the frontiers of information technology with colored folder icons.

Insight like this doesn’t come easily. You’ve got to know the technology and understand how to look behind the scenes. Benefit from the knowledge and experience of the Office 365 for IT Pros team by subscribing to the best eBook covering Office 365 and the wider Microsoft 365 ecosystem.