How to Minimize Microsoft Outlook to System Tray

Microsoft has a knack for spreading misery in simple ways. An appreciable quality during Christmas time. A recent example is the “updated” Microsoft Office Outlook versions which stopped carrying a “Minimze to system tray” option from the Tools -> Options.

I spent way too much time under the presumption that it may have just been moved to some other incovenient location because it immediately didn’t register in my mind that I had a Microsoft app before me. Why exactly would someone take pains to remove something already existing and working normally can be a philosophical debate that can take us all the remaining days of this year and more. And I don’t wish to do that for this vacation. I should probably be thankful to them because this is their way of offering me another blog post.

So. There is a way around. Thankfully.

1. Open the Registry Editor (Press Win+R, type “regedit”, Enter).
2. Navigate down the tree: My Computer -> HKEY_CURRENT_USER -> Software -> Microsoft -> Office -> -> Outlook -> Preferences. is the version number of the Office you are using and can be found in any Help -> About of a Microsoft Office application: 10 for Office 2000; 11 for Office 2003, 12 for Office 2007.
3. Create a New Value of type “DWORD Value” (through Edit menu or right-click). Name in MinToTray. Modify its Value Data to 1 to enable system tray minimization.

You should be able to minimze Outlook to the system tray now.

P.S. This is a fairly straight-forward thing to do, but you might want to save the curent registries (export) before tweaking.

Image Source: Regedit Screenshot taken on my laptop.