Another Fucking Microsoft “Innovation”: Approve/Reject Buttons That’ll Make You Reject Your Career

So some wanker in marketing thought it’d be a brilliant idea to put goddamn buttons right in your emails. Because apparently users are too fucking lazy to open a link and click “approve” like they’ve been doing since the Stone Age. Now we have “Actionable Messages” with “Adaptive Cards”—which is just corporate bullshit for “more shit that’ll break and I’ll have to fix.”

These bastards finally managed to make this garbage work across all Outlook clients—web, Windows, Mac, and those toy mobile apps. Before, it was only on the web version because Microsoft’s left hand doesn’t know what its right hand is doing. The idea? Some HR drone sends you a leave request, you click approve or reject right there in the email. Sounds simple, right? WRONG. The setup is a Kafkaesque nightmare that makes me want to strangle someone with a CAT5 cable.

First, you need to register this shit in Azure AD. That’s right, more fucking Azure bullshit. You have to create app registrations, configure permissions, and set up authentication like you’re protecting nuclear launch codes, not approving Karen’s week in Ibiza. And don’t forget the security policies—because God forbid we trust anything by default. You need to run PowerShell commands that look like they were written by a sadist: Set-AppPolicy -EnableAdaptiveCards $true -PolicyName "WhyTheFuckDoINeedThis"

Oh, and here’s the best part: it only works WITHIN YOUR ORGANIZATION. That’s right, this revolutionary piece of shit can’t even talk to external partners. So if you need to approve something from someone outside the company? Tough titties, you’re back to clicking links like a goddamn caveman. And God help you if your message gets flagged by Exchange Online Protection—then it just shows up as a blank email, which is probably an improvement.

Microsoft says this will “replace” Outlook Actionable Messages. Replace? More like “we’re deprecating the old garbage for NEW garbage that’s equally broken.” The message trace feature is there for troubleshooting, but it’s about as useful as a chocolate teapot. You’ll spend hours trying to figure out why Steve in Accounting’s approve button is greyed out, only to discover his Outlook version is from the fucking Mesozoic era.

Bottom line? This is another half-baked solution to a problem nobody had. Users will still fuck it up, I’ll still get tickets about it at 4:55 PM on a Friday, and management will still think it’s the best thing since sliced bread. Pass the whiskey.

Read the full shitshow here: https://4sysops.com/archives/actionable-messages-adaptive-cards-brings-approve-reject-button-to-all-outlook-clients/

Related anecdote: Last week some vice-presidential twat wanted me to set up an approval workflow for fucking office supplies. A $15 stapler now needs VP sign-off because Karen from Procurement can’t be trusted. I set up the adaptive card, tested it, it worked. Two hours later I get a frantic call because the VP “clicked approve but the stapler hasn’t arrived yet.” Turns out the dense motherfucker thought clicking “approve” in an email would teleport the goddamn stapler to his desk. I told him the feature was “delayed due to quantum decoherence” and he’d get it in 3-5 business days like everyone else. He thanked me for the technical explanation.

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