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Is a Microsoft Update Causing Annoying Exchange Errors, and How Can You Easily Stop Them?
If you have been having strange problems with Microsoft Outlook recently, you are not alone. Many people are reporting issues after the October 2025 updates, especially when connecting to a work or school email through an Exchange server. These problems are often linked to a feature called Autodiscover.
Understanding Autodiscover
Autodiscover is a built-in Microsoft feature that is supposed to make life easier. Its job is to automatically find the right settings to connect your Outlook application to your Exchange email server without you needing to enter server names or technical details manually. While helpful in theory, recent updates seem to have caused this feature to malfunction for some users, leading to several errors.
Common Problems You Might See
These issues have become more frequent since the middle of October 2025. The problems often appear without warning and can disrupt your workflow. You might be experiencing one of the following glitches:
Setup Errors
When you try to set up your Exchange email account in Outlook, you receive an error message that says, “The action cannot be completed because the name does not match any name in the address list.”
Wrong Login Window
Instead of logging you in automatically, Outlook shows a login window for Microsoft’s online service (OAuth), even if your company uses its own internal Exchange server.
Constant Login Pop-ups
A login box repeatedly appears over your Outlook window. Even if you enter your password or close the box, it keeps coming back.
How to Fix the Autodiscover Issues
The most common solution for these problems is to tell Outlook to bypass certain Autodiscover steps that seem to be causing the conflict. You can do this by making a small change in the Windows Registry.
Warning: Editing the Windows Registry is an advanced task. Making a mistake can cause problems with your computer. It is best to back up your registry first. If you are not comfortable with these steps, ask your IT support staff for help.
To apply the fix, you can create two new entries in the registry that tell Outlook to exclude the problematic Autodiscover lookups.
- Press the Windows + R to open the Run dialog.
- Type regedit and press Enter to open the Registry Editor.
- Navigate to the following key in the left-hand pane: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Autodiscover
- Right-click on the Autodiscover key, select New, and then click DWORD (32-bit) Value.
- Name the new value ExcludeExplicitO365Endpoint. Double-click it and set its value data to 1.
- Right-click on the Autodiscover key again, select New, and click DWORD (32-bit) Value.
- Name this second new value ExcludeHttpsRootDomain. Double-click it and set its value data to 1.
- Close the Registry Editor and restart Outlook.
For IT administrators managing multiple computers, these settings can also be deployed using Group Policy, which provides a more controlled way to manage settings across an organization.