How can I get "focus" off my clock and calendar. I NEVER want the option of FOCUS available.

Question

How can I get "focus" off my clock and calendar. I NEVER want the option of FOCUS available.

Peter Barclay 20

I HATE the focus feature. I can't even stand that feature in hotmail or the new outlook. I get it; there are idiots in the world that need that. Well, I'm not one of them and it is in the way of me being productive and being able to see EVERYTHING instead of hiding things from me.

To fix this, the only thing I can find is to go to settings>system>focus> and then select off. NO SUCH THING. There is an option to "Show Timer in the Clock app" but it doesn't matter if I check or uncheck that, it doesn't do anything. It's bad enough you combined the clock with notifications and took away the quick links at the bottom to things like wifi and the snipping tool. I mean, you could have done something that was ACTUALLY intelligent and enabled synchronizing the outlook calendar with the desktop calendar, but NOPE.

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Answer 1

Quinnie Quoc 7,400 Independent Advisor

Dear Peter Barclay,

I completely understand your frustration—many people feel the Focus feature in Outlook and Windows makes things harder instead of easier. The key point is that there are actually two different Focus features, which is why the setting you tried didn’t work:

Outlook Focused Inbox splits mail into Focused and Other.

Windows Focus sessions are tied to the Clock app and notifications.

To turn off Focused Inbox in Outlook:

On desktop: go to the View tab and uncheck Show Focused Inbox.

On Outlook.com: open Settings → Focused Inbox and switch it off.

For Windows Focus sessions, open the Clock app → Settings and disable Focus sessions, or simply ignore it—it won’t affect your mail or calendar.

As for shortcuts and calendar sync, you can pin tools like Wi-Fi or Snipping Tool to your taskbar for quick access, and add your Outlook account to the Windows Calendar app for better integration.

I would say you could turn off Focused Inbox in Outlook, disable or ignore Focus sessions in Windows, and customize your taskbar to bring back the shortcuts you miss. Once done, you’ll have everything visible again without the system filtering things for you.

Warm regards,

Quinnie Quoc,

Peter Barclay 20 Reputation points

2025-12-03T14:49:03.4266667+00:00

I understand focus is a setting of the app. I thought I expressed that although my disdain for making it a feature in more apps is quite overpowering. Analogy) it's like setting the default font to calibri when everyone relies on Times New Roman or Arial, I get that, has to be changed in every app.

For outlook, web hotmail, and android I have turned off Focus. I CANNOT do that here. The point is I need that little box on the bottom of the calendar gone. I cannot simply ignore it because I live in a world where "accidents happen" and I need it not there to be accidentally hit. I don't care if I have to find the code and quarantine it like a virus so the OS can't show a calendar at all. It's better to lose calendar than have that little focus bar.

Trust me, the amount of "frustration" you perceived is nothing compared to what's going on and a testament to my abilities of restraint. I have NEVER gone this long without upgrading to the new OS. I still have my copies of the Win2k alpha builds.

The functionality I depend on for productivity and yes (military) life critical response that is gone. That is not acceptable. Windows 11 will have people praying for the return of Vista.
Peter Barclay 20 Reputation points

2025-12-06T00:09:12.3366667+00:00

Ok, I was able to solve my problem. I did a full restore to windows 10. The fact that you can't turn off focus mode and the problems with both notepad and CMD and their new behavior were just straws that finally broke the camels back. This OS is completely non-functional for me and actually creates major safety threats due to the loss in functionality. There are so many changes that have to be made just to restore 70% of the functions. It makes it more time consuming than writing a whole new OS. The other 30% that cannot be restored make the removal of windows 11 critical. I'll either be skipping this version or more likely switching our systems to Linux. Thanks for trying to help though.

Answer 2

Ok, I was able to solve my problem. I did a full restore to windows 10. The fact that you can't turn off focus mode and the problems with both notepad and CMD and their new behavior were just straws that finally broke the camels back. This OS is completely non-functional for me and actually creates major safety threats due to the loss in functionality. There are so many changes that have to be made just to restore 70% of the functions. It makes it more time consuming than writing a whole new OS. The other 30% that cannot be restored make the removal of windows 11 critical. I'll either be skipping this version or more likely switching our systems to Linux. Thanks for trying to help though.

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How can I get "focus" off my clock and calendar. I NEVER want the option of FOCUS available.

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