# New Outlook for Windows Features Worth Using: Pinning, Search, Categories and My Day

> Pinned emails, search filters, categories in Favorites and To Do tasks in My Day: what each new Outlook feature does, how to use it today, and what was retired.

- URL: https://www.danielanderson.io/articles/new-outlook-features/
- Author: Daniel Anderson, Microsoft MVP (https://www.danielanderson.io/)
- Published: 2023-04-20
- Updated: 2026-10-26
- Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-eMl4MFliY

## Key takeaways

- The new Outlook for Windows is Microsoft's rebuilt Outlook desktop app, sharing its experience with Outlook on the web, and it has features classic Outlook doesn't, such as pinned emails.
- Right-click a message and select Pin to keep it at the top of your inbox until you unpin it.
- Select Filters at the end of the search box to narrow a search by folder, sender, subject, keywords, date or attachments, and set the default scope under Settings, General, Search.
- Categories work like metadata for email: tag messages with Categorize, then right-click the category in the folder pane and select Add to Favorites to open every tagged email in one click.
- Calendar board view was retired in June 2023. For tasks beside your mail, open My Day and drag an email into the To Do tab to turn it into a task.

The new Outlook for Windows is Microsoft's rebuilt Outlook desktop app, sharing its look and features with Outlook on the web, and four of the five features I showed in 2023 are in it today: pinned emails, filtered search, categories in Favorites, and To Do tasks in the My Day pane. The fifth, Boards in the calendar, was retired in June 2023, two months after I recorded the video.

When I recorded this, I'd been using these features in Outlook on the web for a while and they were on their way to the desktop. The menu names below are the current ones.

| Feature in the video | Today in new Outlook | Where to find it |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Pin emails | Still there, and not in classic Outlook | Right-click a message, **Pin** |
| Scoped search | Still there, with more filters | **Filters** at the end of the search box |
| Categories and Favorites | Still there | **Categorize**, then **Add to Favorites** |
| To Do beside your mail | Now in the **My Day** pane | **My Day**, then the **To Do** tab |
| Boards in the calendar | Retired June 2023 | Not available |

## How does pinning work in new Outlook?

Right-click a message and select **Pin**, or select the pin icon on the message in the list. It moves to the top of the inbox and stays there however much new mail arrives below it. Select the pin again to unpin it once you've dealt with it. In the video I pinned two emails and both sat above the rest of the inbox until I unpinned them.

## How do you narrow a search in new Outlook?

Type in the **Search** box and press Enter, then select **Filters** at the end of the search box. You can limit results to a folder, a sender, a recipient, words in the subject, keywords, a date range or messages with attachments. In the demo I set **From** to Alex and added keywords to find meeting notes, and the results came back in the main message list.

If you mostly search the folder you're in, change the default under **Settings**, **General**, **Search** to **Current Folder**. The same page has **Include deleted items** for when something you've binned won't turn up, and search covers your Online Archive automatically.

## How do categories and Favorites work together?

A category is a coloured, named tag on an email. Select one or more messages, then **Categorize** on the toolbar (or right-click, **Categorize**) and pick a category or create a new one. In the video I tagged two emails with a purple category.

If you use SharePoint, this will feel familiar. Categories are metadata for your mailbox: the email stays in whatever folder it's in, and the tag pulls everything on one topic together. Right-click the category in the folder pane and select **Add to Favorites**, and it sits at the top of the folder pane, one click from every email with that tag.

## How do you turn an email into a task?

Select **My Day** at the top of the window. It has two tabs, **Calendar** and **To Do**. Drag an email into the **To Do** tab and it becomes a task in Microsoft To Do, or drag a task onto your calendar to block out time for it. The video also showed a right-click path through **Advanced actions**, **Create task**. I couldn't find it in Microsoft's current documentation for new Outlook, so drag the email into My Day instead.

## Keep pins few and let categories do the sorting

I've found pinning extremely useful for emails I need to get back to, and it works best for a handful at a time. Pin the few you have to act on and unpin each one the moment it's done, or the pinned section becomes a second inbox.

Categories are for topics that cut across folders. A client, a project or an approval that turns up in several places is the right job for a category in Favorites. For a topic that already lives in one folder, add that folder to Favorites instead.

And if you're leaving a message unread so you remember to do something, that email is really a task. Drag it into My Day, then file or archive the email.

Two more new Outlook features worth a look: [Outlook Newsletters](https://www.danielanderson.io/articles/outlook-newsletters/) for internal updates, and [Copilot Chat as your email assistant](https://www.danielanderson.io/articles/copilot-email-assistant-outlook/).

## Frequently asked questions

**Can I pin emails in classic Outlook?**
No. Microsoft's feature comparison of new and classic Outlook lists pinned emails as a new Outlook feature only. In classic Outlook, flagging a message or moving it to a dedicated folder are the nearest options.

**What happened to Boards in the Outlook calendar?**
Microsoft retired calendar board view on 26 June 2023 and redirected board links to a supported calendar view. The events, notes, tasks and files that sat on boards stayed in their own apps.

**Why doesn't new Outlook search find emails in a shared mailbox?**
Searching all mailboxes doesn't return results from a shared mailbox. Select the shared mailbox and search with the **Current Folder** scope. New Outlook also can't search several accounts at once, so search each account in turn.

**Can I add things other than categories to Favorites in new Outlook?**
Yes. Mail folders, shared folders you have access to, people and search folders can go in Favorites too. Right-click the item in the folder pane and select **Add to Favorites**, or drag a folder into the Favorites section.