Quick Methods to Disable Preview Pane in Outlook

Read time: 6 minutes

The Windows 10 Mail app and Outlook both come with a built-in preview pane, also referred to as the reading pane. When you select an email, it promptly appears on the right-hand side. This function also showcases the initial line of every email alongside its subject line.

Occasionally, this function might become bothersome, especially when operating in a shared space or for personal reasons when you prefer not to expose the content of your emails. Rest assured, you have the option to disable the preview pane and keep your messages discreet, as we’ll explain in the following section.

In this blog post, we’ll learn how to deactivate the preview pane or reading pane in both the Windows 10 Mail app and various iterations of Outlook. Afterwards, we’ll delve into a discussion about a professional-grade tool for this purpose. repair Outlook 2019, 2016, and 2010 PST manually.

How to Disable Preview Pane

Outlook and Windows 10 Mail applications come with a default Preview Pane or Reading Pane feature. To deactivate it, you can employ the methods outlined below. We will now go through each process in a step-by-step manner:

To turn off the reading pane in Outlook, follow the steps below. Keep in mind that these steps will only disable the reading pane for the currently selected folder.

1. Open ‘Outlook’ and select the ‘View’ tab.
2. In the ‘Layout’ section, select ‘Reading Pane.’
3. Click on ‘Off,’ and the reading pane turns off for the selected folder.

1. Open ‘Outlook’ and select the ‘View’ tab.
2. Now, select ‘Change View’ and click on ‘Apply Current View to Other Mail Folders.’
3. Reading Pane is now disabled in all other mail folders also.

To conceal the preview text in Outlook, which typically shows beneath the message subject, proceed with the following steps:

1. Open ‘Outlook’ and select the ‘View’ tab.
2. Click on ‘Current view,’ then select ‘Message Preview’ and click on ‘Off.’

To set the reading pane in Outlook to be disabled by default, establish an Outlook shortcut folder on your desktop. This approach will assist you in deactivating the reading pane for all your email accounts in Outlook. Proceed with the following steps to implement this method:

1. Open ‘File Explorer’ and select the C drive. Then search for ‘Outlook.exe’ in the search bar, and you will get an ‘OUTLOOK.EXE’ folder.
2. Right-click on the ‘OUTLOOK.EXE’ folder and select ‘Open file location.’
3. Copy the file address from the address bar.
4. Right-click on the desktop window and select ‘New’ and then ‘Shortcut.’
5. Now, paste the address in the ‘Type the location of the item’ box that you copied in step 3 from the address bar. Click on ‘Next.’
6. Enter a name for your shortcut folder in the ‘Type a name for this shortcut’ box. Then, click on ‘Finish.’
   
7. Finally, the new Outlook shortcut is visible on your desktop. Double-click to open it. Now, you will find that the reading pane is automatically disabled for all folders.

Through the below steps, you can disable the preview pane in the Windows 10 mail app:

1. Open the Mail and click on the ‘Settings’ icon in the lower-left corner of the Mail window.
2. In the ‘Settings’ menu, select ‘Message List.’
3. Move the toggle switches to ‘Off’ under Preview text and Image preview.

If you possess a Microsoft 365 subscription, you have the ability to deactivate message preview in Outlook.com by following the steps outlined below:

1. Open Outlook.com and click on the ‘Settings’ icon in the upper-right corner.
2. In the ‘Settings’ menu, click on the ‘View all Outlook Settings.’
3. Select the ‘Layout’ tab, then select the ‘hide reading pane’ under the reading pane option.
4. Now, scroll down, and in the ‘Message Preview Text,’ select ‘Hide Preview Text.’

The preview pane, though seemingly convenient and often useful, offers several benefits. It allows you to review emails without triggering read receipts or marking them as read. Additionally, you have the option to personalize the fonts displayed in the preview. However, exercise caution when using the preview pane, as it may inadvertently open potentially hazardous files, attachments, or emails that could pose a threat to your computer. Furthermore, it has the potential to cause Outlook to crash and lead to the corruption of PST files.

In such a case, we recommend you go with a professional tool named Kernel for Outlook PST Repair tool to repair corrupt PST files. This tool repairs corrupted PST files and recovers lost data within a few clicks. It can quickly resolve oversized PST file issues and save them to new healthy PST files. Through it, you can easily export PST files to Office 365, web mails, and email servers. Overall, it is the best tool for repairing Outlook PST files.

Conclusion

I trust you’ll discover this blog to be valuable. Certainly, there are both advantages and disadvantages to using the preview pane in Windows 10 Mail app and Outlook. Should you not find this feature beneficial, you can deactivate it using the methods outlined above. Finally, we suggest employing a reputable PST repair tool for fixing corrupted PST files and retrieving inaccessible Outlook data. This tool is also capable of recovering deleted Outlook items and is compatible with all versions of Outlook.