Microsoft has announced the end of OWA Lightthe streamlined variant of the Outlook web client for Exchange Server. The Exchange Team announced on Wednesday that the feature will be permanently disabled in a future product update, closing a chapter opened almost twenty years ago.
“OWA Light was an important compatibility experience when the web needed it. Today, the full Outlook on the web experience is the right place to focus,” the team explained. The removal, according to Microsoft, will serve to “reduce legacy surface area to maintain” and simplify ongoing engineering work on the product.
OWA Light was born as an alternative to OWA Premium for systems without Internet Explorer 6 or later versions, or equipped with older browsers. At the time of launch, Microsoft boasted a more streamlined interface, faster access times on narrowband connections, and compatibility with blocked browser modes—think public information kiosks.
Microsoft disables OWA Light on Exchange
The price for that lightness, however, was a reduced feature set. In fact, weekly and monthly calendar views, access to shared mailboxes and calendars, import and export of messages and contacts, as well as the ability to create or edit tasks and notes are missing.
Microsoft already had it Officially deprecated OWA Light on August 19, 2024. The actual removal from the on-premises environment of Exchange Server is expected for August 2026, barring changes to the roadmap.
“The web has changed significantly since OWA Light was introduced. Modern browsers are more capable and consistent with each other, network conditions have improved for many customers, and the security landscape has changed significantly,” the Exchange Team said in a statement. A way of saying that the exception designed for a web made up of obsolete browsers and slow connections no longer has any reason to exist.
After the change is introduced, users will no longer be able to select or be redirected to OWA Light – only the modern version of Outlook on the web will remain. However, those who administer an Exchange environment and want to get ahead of the curve can deactivate the function now, without waiting for the August update.
The command Set-OwaMailboxPolicy -OwaLightEnabled $false immediately blocks access to the lightweight version, while Set-OwaVirtualDirectory -LogonPageLightSelectionEnabled $false removes the selection item from the login page. Two lines of PowerShell that effectively close an era of corporate IT closely linked to the technical limits of the early 2000s.
