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Using Outlook With Hotmail by Tod Amazeen Updated September 18, 2017 Use a Hotmail e-mail address with Microsoft Outlook by selecting the 'Account Settings' option in Outlook, selecting the 'E-mail' tab and entering the e-mail address and POP account information provided by Hotmail. Jul 16, 2013 - To check the number of data files in Outlook 2016, 2013 and 2010. Using outlook 2010. The Hotmail account is corrupt and unable to repair.
Microsoft has undergone a number of rebrands over the past several years, and it probably would’ve been a good move if their resulting product names weren’t so confusing. When someone refers to something like “Outlook”, what exactly do they mean?
These days, “Outlook” can refer to a desktop email clientYou Should Ditch Webmail for a Desktop Email Client If...You Should Ditch Webmail for a Desktop Email Client If...A few years ago, webmail was all the rave. Wonder whether it's time to switch back to a desktop email client? Look no further. We show you the merits of a local mail service.Read More, a Web-based email client7 Reasons Why You Should Stop Using Desktop Email Clients7 Reasons Why You Should Stop Using Desktop Email ClientsIs a web-based email client preferable to a desktop option? We looked at the different pros and cons and found an answer for you.Read More, and an online email service. And as if that weren’t perplexing enough, you also have to juggle terms like “Hotmail”, “Live Mail”, or “Outlook web app”.
We’re here to clear it all up. Which terms should you be using? By the end of this article, you won’t have any doubts anymore.
Microsoft’s Email Services
Next to Gmail, Hotmail was one of the world’s most recognizable email services. Back in 1997, when Microsoft had bought it from the original creators, Hotmail offered something unique from most email inboxes: independence from ISPs like America OnLine (AOL).
This version was called MSN Hotmail and it no longer exists.
Now fast-forward to 2005. Microsoft announced a new set of services and products that were designed to extend the user experience on Windows. This new suite was called Windows Live, which you might recognize in products like the now open source Windows Live Writer and Windows Live Essentials.
Here’s where it starts to get confusing. As part of this movement, Microsoft planned to phase out Hotmail and replace it with a new mail system called Windows Live Mail. But when beta testers complained about the change and how they preferred the Hotmail brand, Microsoft backtracked and settled on Windows Live Hotmail.
The Windows Live brand was discontinued in 2012. Some of the services and products were integrated directly into the Windows operating system (e.g. apps for Windows 8 and 10), while others were separated and continued on their own (e.g. Windows Live Search became Bing), while others were simply axed.
Around that same time, Microsoft introduced Outlook.com, which was essentially a rebranding of Windows Live Hotmail with an updated user interface and improved features. Many people incorrectly refer to this as Outlook Online. (There’s no such thing.)
To add to the confusion, current users were allowed to keep their @hotmail.com email addresses, but new users can no longer create accounts with that domain. Instead, new users can only create @outlook.com addresses, even though both email addresses use the same email service.
So as of right now, Outlook.com is the official name of Microsoft’s email service, which was formerly known as Hotmail and Windows Live Hotmail.
Microsoft’s Web Email Clients
Back in the golden days, the Hotmail website was the web interface for the Hotmail email service. There was no brand mismatch. The services were one in the same. Whenever you said “Hotmail”, people always knew what you were talking about.
Unfortunately, things just aren’t that simple anymore.
In 2011, just one year before Microsoft discontinued their Windows Live brand, they introduced Office 365. At the time, Office 365 was geared towards business and corporate users, but over time it was expanded to include regular consumers as well. In a lot of ways, Office 365 is what Windows Live should’ve been.
As part of Microsoft’s push for Office 365, they released a collection of web apps called Outlook on the web (formerly Outlook Web App) in 2015. This suite included four separate tools: Microsoft Outlook Mail, Outlook Calendar, Outlook People, and Outlook Tasks.
The important one is Outlook Mail, which is the modern analogue to the Hotmail interface from years ago. Remember how Microsoft rebranded their email service as Outlook.com? Outlook Mail is the front-end while Outlook.com is the back-end.
As with Outlook.com, many people incorrectly refer to Outlook Mail as Outlook Online. There’s no such thing as Outlook Online.
To make it abundantly clear, Outlook Mail is the web email client while Outlook.com is the actual email service that Microsoft provides. The former is used to view the latter.
Microsoft’s Desktop Email Clients
Microsoft’s confusing brand strategy has also spilled into their desktop products. After all, up until recently, “Outlook” has always meant “Microsoft’s desktop email client”. It wasn’t until they went crazy with rebranding, that everything became overly complicated.
Outlook debuted way back on MS-DOS — even before Windows 3.1 — but didn’t really gain traction until Outlook 97, which was packaged as part of Office 97. With every subsequent version of Office20 Historical Microsoft Office Facts You Forgot Or Never Knew20 Historical Microsoft Office Facts You Forgot Or Never KnewThe Microsoft Office suite turned 25 this year. The world has changed since digital presentations, word processing, and spreadsheets became a thing. Do you remember how it all began?Read More, up to and including Office 2016, the Microsoft Outlook desktop client has also received updates.
![Outlook Outlook](/uploads/1/2/5/8/125838998/435490062.png)
Sometimes, this desktop version is referred to as Office Outlook, but the official name is Microsoft Outlook (or simply Outlook). You can see how that could be confusing given all of the different Outlook-related products and services out there today, but that confusion isn’t just a recent thing.
Consider the now-defunct Outlook Express, which was an email client that came packaged with Internet Explorer starting in 1996. Despite similarities in name, Outlook Express wasn’t related to Microsoft Outlook in any way (except for its use as an email client).
Microsoft Outlook Express was succeeded by Windows Mail in 2005, around the same time that Windows Vista was released. This was most likely due to infrastructural differences between Windows XP and Windows Vista, which is why the two are similar, but Windows Mail can’t be used on versions prior to Vista.
Just two years later, in 2007, Windows Mail was succeeded by Windows Live Mail. Remember how Microsoft wanted to rebrand Hotmail as Windows Live Mail? This has nothing to do with that. Hotmail became Windows Live Hotmail while Windows Mail became Windows Live Mail.
On Windows 10, none of the above-mentioned programs are relevant except for Outlook (which can also be called Microsoft Office Outlook if you want to differentiate it from all the other Outlook-related products out there).
The Bottom Line
If you got this far and your head is spinning, don’t worry. That’s normal. Microsoft really shot themselves in the foot with rebrand after rebrand, and it’s almost impossible to keep up anymore. If you’re still confused, here’s what you need to know:
- Outlook.com is the current name for Microsoft’s email service, which was formerly known as Hotmail.
- Outlook Mail is the web app that let’s you browse your Outlook.com email account. It’s part of the Outlook on the web suite of web apps.
- Outlook, or Office Outlook, is Microsoft’s desktop email client. It can be used with Outlook.com email addresses or with any other email addresses.
Everything else — including Outlook Express, Windows Mail, and Windows Live Mail — are no longer relevant unless you’re using outdated versions of Windows3 Reasons Why You Should Be Running The Latest Windows Security Patches & Updates3 Reasons Why You Should Be Running The Latest Windows Security Patches & UpdatesThe code that makes up the Windows operating system contains security loop holes, errors, incompatibilities, or outdated software elements. In short, Windows isn't perfect, we all know that. Security patches and updates fix the vulnerabilities...Read More.
Did this help? Are you still confused? Know something that we missed? Tell us about it in the comments below!
Do you not like Outlook? Maybe it’s time to switch to Gmail for good. Here’s how to forward your Outlook emailsHow to Forward Your Outlook Email to GmailHow to Forward Your Outlook Email to GmailNeed to forward email from Outlook to Gmail? We'll show you how to import Outlook to Gmail and bring everything with you.Read More.
Image Credits: MSN Hotmail via Wikipedia, Windows Live Hotmail via Wikipedia, Outlook.com via Wikipedia, Outlook on the Web via Wikipedia, Outlook 2016 via Wikipedia, Windows Mail via Wikipedia, Windows Live Mail via Wikipedia
Explore more about: Desktop Email Client, Hotmail, Microsoft Outlook, Windows Live.
- I am so confused. Yes i’ve Been w/hotmail frm day 1. I’ve been having problems lately receiving my mail frm 6 days ago. Wat is IMAP-outlook.com as compared to smtp-mail.outlook.com n wats more confusing is none of my Passwords work - frustrated n don’t know wat to do!!!
- Thanks Joel, very good article and recap of Microsoft email clients progression, or should I say regression instead.
- I have been sick of Microsoft changes for many years, I would say probably 20 years. Microsoft gobbles up any good software out there and makes it own, but then everything goes downhill from there. They had a good OS in Windows 7, it was solid but they were coming out with their own brand of tablet and laptop and they needed to modify the software to accommodate their products and on top of that, they were bringing onboard Office 365 which requires a subscription. The email clients that they have renamed and redesigned over the years is a very good example of Microsoft unsettlement. A person barely has time to get used to an App in Windows, that it all of a sudden is changed for new one.
- If I create a new email account in Outlook or Gmail, how do my current Hotmail contacts and files get forwarded or are they all lost? I already completely lost an att.net account when Yahoo and At&t parted ways, and was told I have no way to get my contacts or files back!
- Hello, Intriguing article BUT when I tried to use my ancient Hotmail account in France last year it was migrated to Yahoo with all the supporting text in French....no explanation, no reply to queries.
Probably time to set up 2nd gmail account! - This is a great article giving the best information for the differences between: Outlook, Live.com, etc. Thanks a whole bunch. A+
- Regina Jones is correct....
I too received a notification from Google that my Gmail account would be terminated as of April 1st of 2019. They will no longer be supporting or offering FREE consumer email service and all @gmail.com accounts will be terminated. Google is offering a compiled profile file for it's current clients to download, however they don't tell you how to upload or transfer the file up to another email provider or which one it will be compatible with.
Google email service ( gmail ) is being terminated... and the current 2019 Reviews of Email service providers and Ratings for 2019 posts online are not telling or warning consumers about it with gmail termination only one month away as of this posting.- False news, my Gmail account is still going strong and I have never received any such information that my account would be discontinued. The Google Plus was the feature that was being terminated.
- Aren't they getting rid of gmail. Or I'd that false info.
- I just signed up for an @hotmail.com account, so its not dead.
- I have email accounts with hotmail.com and msn.com why do I keep getting messages that some of my msn.com emails folders are not right . Can I not use MSN.com because most of my contacts have my man.com e-adress?
- Yes, gmail is good. I also used MS outlook 2007 until recently when when I tried to re-instal office 2007 on my new laptop. Microsoft refused to allow activation, citing 2007 no longer supported. Well, when I bought Office 2007, the contract did not say one day I would be refused activation. I feel I am ripped off.That is why I am looking for alternative. The only downside using gmail is that I cannot browse my emails offline. Is there another alternative?
ThanksP/S: Unfortunately I am using Windows 10. My next one will not be Windows anymore.
Byebye MS. You are so arrogant and dictatorial. - How the hell do I access my hotmail account?????
At my previous job we had outlook and now when I try to sign into what used to be my 'Hotmail account' with my 'Hotmail Password' it keeps telling me I'm using the wrong password because it keeps thinking I'm trying to sign into my old job outlook account. How is it possible that Microsoft can get it so wrong. Why tamper with something that has been working very well until now?
By the comments below I can see I'm not the only one feeling this way either.- I personally have ceased to use my Microsoft related email accounts, they are constantly sending a verification email. They are just a pain in the rear end these days. I have started to migrate all my accounts using Hotmail, Live Mail, Windows Mail, towards Gmail. Less trouble this way. I plan to eventually close all my Microsoft related accounts.
- This article is totally confusing. I still use Hotmail. Works as well as ever.
- Hi,
I'm totally confused!
I don't know where my hotmail account has gone and I can't seem to find it anymore.
Help!
- When needing to canvass for an email from one of my Outook folders, it keeps reloading, making it impossible to retrieve files beyond what I can see before scrolling down! Problem/Solution?BTW - System is Windows Vista 64bit, 8GB Ram
- I forgot I had Hotmail acct. And when I got it re-instated, I see it is TOTALLY different and can't figure it out. Like how to delete multiple emails or delete junk mail. And what happened to my contacts? All are gone except my brother and 3 friends. I bused to have over 100 contacts. This is on my Alcatel Android phone. The print is so small as to be unreadable. HELP!!!!! BTW, I'm switching to Linux on my laptop!!!
- I just posted, but it didn't display! Where on earth is it?
- I remain confused after reading the above. I.E. is Outlook.Com? =or= Outlook Mail? an Online email-service similar to the way Gmail or Yahoomail were long-long ago (in conservative times) before the onset of their invasive tactics? I'm desperate to bail out of YahooMail due to Peeping-Tom-OATH taking over, and i'm in a panic.
- All of a sudden all this changed. I despise it. I don't know what to do or where to go but I want out of this stupid site. This is awful. Help?
- After many years I wanted to login to Hotmail. What can I tell, except how surprised I was after logging into Outlook to see that all my Hotmails are gone! This is quite harsh even by Microsoft standards. Based on a quick round on Google, I'm not alone with this issue. Thanks a lot Microsoft, well done!
- This is happening to me right now! I've always had 1 email address and it's been hotmail. I am missing 13 years worth of emails as I was trying to search for some very important information that I knew I had in email form. For the last 4 months I have been trying to get support from their many varied support platforms and they have been giving me the scripted run around and I have been tearing my hair out in frustration. Now googling anywhere I can think of for information. I can't have lost 12 years worth of emails!
- I'm with you on this one! I too want a reliable email provider that will retain the domain name. The idea of constantly changing my email address forever frosts my behind. I haven't moved residences as often!
- Thanks for a brilliantly clear article on this subject!
- I just now, August 2017, opened a hotmail email address account. When you're registering for an outlook account, there's an arrow on the right side (end) of the box for 'username' that says '@outlook.com'. You click on it and you can choose @hotmail.com if you want. I'm in Canada, but that shouldn't matter. I wouldn't think so anyway.
- I don't know if the outlook I'm using is from windows10, office365 or what and if its pc based or web based. One of the last updates to windows 10 screwed up my contacts such that the first 50 only have phone numbers and no names. Then a bunch of them have names and email addresses but no phone numbers.
- I encountered the same problem this week. When exporting your contacts as a CSV, open that CSV in Excell, from there you can save the file in different formats. I believe the MS-Dos CSV is the one that works, can't remember for sure which one I used but one of them worked well. Trial and error is what you'll have to do, but you will recuperate all your contacts. Have fun.
- Here's a thing, I've created a hotmail account before. Then it was used for a social media account called Facebook. Mind you, I never received any notice in my hotmail account about these changes from hotmail to outlook whatsoever. My problem started when I've recently change a new device, redownload all apps and I can no longer access to all my apps and stuffs because I can relogin with my only password. I've never changed my password for my wholelife. All the recovering my account process need to be either through my hotmail account or phone number. And when I do try to access my hotmail account, all they said is my account doesn't exists? How is that even possible? Facebook needed an email confirmation from my hotmail account in order to activate it and be used. If my hotmail account does not exist in the first place, then my Facebook account will never be exist for all these years. Are you guys really going to just shut down all hotmail accounts and leave us in despair? I've tried to recreate my hotmail account, using the same name, same email address, same account info. And it did not receive even a single email when I'm trying to recover all my social apps and stuff. I'm so disappointed in this. I mean it. Even my daughther Yahoo account been using for 10years and never have encountered any problem. And I've created a hotmail account since 2011 onwards and I now, no longer have access to my account and recovering process only end with a notice of 'this email you've entered does not exist'. Fix it please.
- I have recently changed my Facebook login account for my Gmail account. You can do this by 1st: adding a new email in your Facebook account by going in the Facebook setting, Then you can make that email your primary email, next you remove the email you can't login into anymore.
- You did away with my hotmail and log in. why i don't know, this makes no sense. I have no confidence in micro soft any more, the world needs a new operating system. i guess i will have to move to apple. for my next lap top and desktop...........can't get to my email any more pass word won't work and i don't want to change it. window 7 user soon to be a not user.
- Oh dear, I have always been using what I still call Hotmail, though I picked up it's called outlook as well. I changed from windows to mac. In Mac I have an email, hotmail plus I think a couple of others, whole system called Mac mail, I don't understand what parts of it are Mac and what parts are Hotmail. Completely confused. To better organise it, I had been trying to give it Rules - and going mad doing it. All the instructions from everywhere were telling me to use something called the Home Tab and Rules, neither of which show up on my system.Is it simple to change over somehow? (Obviously I want to keep my @hotmail.com Address)Actually rather then revolutionise my system and try to do complicated things which will surely go wrong whilst I'm short of time and so I will be cut out of all e mail , I just want first for another urgent reason to introduce the rule that will automatically put certain arriving Mails in the box I want. So is there a workaround to arrive at and impose new Rules without changing my whole system?
- thanks for the info
- It's B.S.. I had a hard enough time trying to remember my email and password and now it's telling me that my email is already in use. Thanks to who ever thought this up. Have you nothing better to do with your time, brains and money. Thank you I have lost important information that I had saved in my folders. Yahoo looks better all the time.
- Please help me out. I am an old fogey who struggles with anything to do with computers. I am still using Windows Vista which I know is out of date and needs to be replaced shortly however in the short term I need to send some emails. I have tried to open outlook for the first time in quite some time and whilst I can see my emails they are all greyed out and inaccessible. Can someone tell me if Outlook is no longer available within the windows vista system. Please excuse my terminology but I would like to know whether this problem is short term and something I can sort out myself.
- when my account went from hotmail to outlook half of my email addresses for friends and family did NOT carry over. How do I get them back?
- The 'new' Outlook is complete garbage. The layout is amateurish, the font is terrible, needed user options are negligible, sending and receiving mail reliably is OVER, syncing folders is hit and miss, added accounts show as active but do not actually work. I could go on ad nauseum but it really is like a bunch of beginning programmers were put in a room and told 'figure it out and if you can't, roll it out anyway'. If this is the best MSFT can do i would short the stock once this Fed inspired hydrogen balloon of a stock market starts down the road back to reality.
- Jay, right on!! the garbage we are seeing now as outlook express mail is worse than anything I've seen any where and called e mail. it is worse than sloppy, it is worse than amateurish!
my god! a group of 5th graders could have done better. quit . stop do not attempt to fix it! through it out!!! bill has lots of money, do it right !!!
J. Laury Ho, TX
- You have found out how to run this company in to the ground. 'Congrandulations. '
I hope the investors are happy with you.
- Hi there,
I recently tried to access my hotmail account. I was prompted to login via outlook - I had heard that outlook was taking over hotmail so proceeded - I was given a 'new ' email address - that was gmail? it was my gmail account? which still exists. now I have an outlook account but none of my old emails are in there? and this account reads from gmail when i compose an email but the emails do not arrive when I send them and incoming emails addressed to hotmail see to also dissappear? incoming emails sent to gmail go to my gmail account and do not show up in my outlook account - even though when I compose from my outlook account it shows me that I am composing from :gmail. WTF is happening? :) - How do I get rid of the 'live: ' before my name in my hotmail address. When I receive or send mail it says 'live: ' then my name which I find very annoying!
- Tis the warning you are next, but for right now you are still alive. Sorry I feel your agony?
- Hi, I've been using Gmail for many years now and are completely organised. I do have an Outlook account that originally came with the computer, but that's just a laugh I don't really use it.
- We just got this system and it won't give us access to the desktop unless we sing in with their live mail.
It is a pain.
How do I get the system to just come on without all of this crap! - I am having the same problems everyone else is. I have 2 hotmail addresses that I can't access. I have tried to login and keep getting the same stupid 'that email address doesn't exist'. Thank you Microsoft, you pay people big money to do shit like this.GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER MICROSOFT, YOU SUCK
- My head hurts but very informative, thank you. I've just given Hotmail the elbow and gone over to Gmail. Much easier than trying to work out how to sort out all the problems that I now have with Hotmail, sorry Outlook Mail or Outlook eMail etc. Since Microsoft decided to migrate my Hotmail.co.uk to the new system I've been unable to view photo attachments. Trying to sort this out with Microsoft has now taken me two months and it's still not sorted. There is also the Mail Desktop App which comes with 10 and syncs with Outlook Mail. Apparently Outlook uses a different service to view attachments which does not work. Tried to add an alias which is impossible with new Interface and ended up causing a security alert on my account and will be able to change in one months time. And these idiots at Microsoft get paid for bringing total confusion to the masses.
- The new Outlook versus Hotmail is crap!!!! I am slowly changing everything over to my gmail account. It is sending contacts I have to a junk mail folder, it will not allow me to block some email addresses (gives the bullshit excuse, email address doesn't exist.) if an email address didn't exist, how in the hell did it make it into my inbox, but my legitimate senders are being marked as spam. This program is garbage. Next system is definitely an Apple. So done with Microsoft. I loved my Hotmail and had it since the beginning. If your goal is to lose customers, you are doing an outstanding job. Google thanks you!
- You are so right.
- I found your history of Outlook helpful. Now I know where it fits in. Thanks. Now I need a little help to find my way around Outlook as it is now our only email package.
- I am so upset with this new system. I can't find my work folders and after having stored over 100 puppies that we have fostered in a file with pictures in special folders they are now gone!! This isn't just stupid it is really heartbreaking to me.
- I much prefer the old Hotmail, do not like the layout of outlook. FIX IT!
- Thanks for the clarification, Joel.The confusion hasn't ended though, not for me anyway. There seem to be different versions of 'Outlook.com' as of the 2nd half of 2016?!For example, this M'soft page (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2735989) talks about connecting (older) Outlook clients to 'Outlook.com' anno 2012 (by use of a patch/plugin called the 'Outlook Hotmail Connector'). As the owner of an older Outlook client I installed the 'connector', but only ran into problems connecting to the 2016 outlook.com . After reading a lot of more pages it turns out that the recent outlook.com is a fundamentally different service than the earlier one (e.g. Exchange ActiveSync instead of DeltaSync). What wording differentiates between outlook.com pre and post 2016, is it 'Office 365 Mail'?Then there is 'Outlook Anywhere', a way to connect Outlook clients to the current (?) outlook.com using the Exchange protocol, I believe (e.g. http://www.colorado.edu/oit/tutorial/office-365-outlook-windows-manual-exchange-configuration or https://support.csusb.edu/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/48/0/office-365---how-to-configure-outlook-anywhere-for-outlook-20102013).Cheers. M.
- Nice article.Confound it - and thats apparently the guiding principle that Microsoft apply to all of their work. I've had my Hotmail since 1998. At some point I even added a subscription for it, which I kept until 2012 where I had a switch of credit cards and erm.. That subscription service was apparently dismantled. Since then each new upgrade has been a very convincing and unwavering leap towards the Abyss. Windows 8, which is completely off-topic, was the light at the end of the tunnel even though you had to spend a few minutes replacing the Start menu with an actual menu and flip a few switches to turn off the Tablet mode, but it was apparently not where they wanted to be. Windows 10 is a giant leap backwards, downwards, free fall to the bottom of the bottomless pit, I guess. It's not getting any lighter or anywhere I would define by anything else than nowhere. And now this.. I've already been spending more than an hour trying to read a mail from last week. Every time I scroll, a little or a lot, I get the void, that big empty space in my face and always too much. I hate Google, but at least their mail client works a little better, unfortunately that beast is as useless and bloated as their search engine and I just can't get used to the break away from freedom even though it's been gone for so many years. I really like choice, but for some reason everything is dumbed down and stupe.. stu.. stupefaction.. stupendous.. stupid.. stupidity.. stupor.. ???, ?????????. All useful words and together they are like the.. Erm, I mean a fellowship of the ring, but I need the ring itself. Nostalgia and old bad habit keep me going back to Hotmail, which is actually Outlook and now not even that anymore. If the Sun went Nova I would be like: Pfttttth!! Been there, done that. Go away. Well.. not that big really, not even close, but I liked the idea and your own personal imagination has never been as important as now.
- The latest Outlook change of w/s design and structure is a pain in the neck. It's totally incoherent, the pages too pale, and poor structure means you have to hunt around for Inbox mail, and the rest. I could go on. What was wrong with the previous Hotmail?Overstressed, UK
- What was wrong with the previous Hotmail? One word, NOTHING.
- I liked the old way of finding data using the Go To…(certain date). I used this often. I liked hitting a delete the page box at the top of the page to quickly tidy up the inbox. What the…. heck? Can't use this. Too messy, to difficult to use folders, too, well, stupid. I will DEFINITELY be looking for another email provider!
- I logged into my hotmail account and I'm in outlook but NONE of my email is there. How do I get my email that was in hotmail?
- Above article is the best way explained,
Hotmail, to Outlook - front engine to to rear Guard Man. - My hotmail template changed in real time - I thought someone was taking over my computer - on 11 September 2016.Now I cannot discern a junk mail the connection with Microsoft Outlook 2010 has been severed.I prefer hotmail.
- Outlook is now, by far, the most useless of my email accounts.
It's a good thing I started driving people to my other email address years ago!You dun goof'd, Microsoft. Goof'd. - Yesterday my Outlook.com, signed in through msn.com home page, looked the same way it always has. Today, the template totally changed. I don't like anything about it. The font is light, the organization of topics or headers in the left hand vertical pain is different. The right message oain looks different. It appears as if some command or button was accidently hit to cause this change. Please tell me how to get back to my original display for my email at msn.com, Thank you.Sincerely,
Desperate - I don't like the new outlook.com. My Junk mail folder is now in alphabetical order with all my other folders and not at the top on my iPhone. Moving emails to folders is still good on iPhone but on my desktop I have to go through three steps to move a file to a folder instead of the one step it used to be! The new format is harder to read on my desktop too...Overall, I would say it is a dismal failure in how they have changed outlook.com.
- I am getting alot of junk mail in the last several days. These are the type that I have not seen before. I haven't changed any settings so what has changed?
- I now have no e mail account and assume that I can have no e mail account..........I have had no warning and now have no idea what to do? J
- Awful! What's happened to the check boxes so you could select a number of emails to delete? The navigation is clunky and the font way too big so you can't look at a long list of emails. What a nightmare. Why do they have to keep changing things that work fine?
- Look at all the comments and see how many people are unhappy and if that makes you happy I feel sorry for you
- sadly outlook is so expensive, so I agree with the recommendations below, I use xeliux.com and then I connect it to outlook email client and it works perfect, I can use the webmail interfase too because it works in all devices. it is perfect for us and our customers,I endorse it.
- how do i retrieve all my messages?
- address book doesn't identify names just the email address.
This will not work for our small non-profit.
This has taken countless hours to try to work around.
Microsoft should be ashamed of itself. - This new layout absolutely sucks. Hotmail was so easy to navigate and it did what was needesd. This outlook looks dreadful and way too busy for the eye, and as other people have mentioned prior it has lost a number of useful functions. Why mess with stuff that doesn't need it?
- Totally agree with 'no'. Further, performance is degraded. Maybe they're about to spring something else on us that will improve things - da ya think?
- It seems impossible for Microsoft to use their brain. People are using the same layout for years, and Microsoft simply changes everything. Now you loose a lot of time searching for stuff. It's not logical anymore. Just like the changes made in Office. It's so annoying, I destroyed my laptop at work out of pure anger, having to search for everything and cannot finding it.
My email addresses in Hotmail are also mostly gone, because Microsoft decided to only save the email addresses that were liked to a telephone number, because they assume that in the 'people' tab you only have people that you need to call ?
Lost most of my contacts because of this.
Thank you very much Microsoft (sarcasm... recognize it !) - I hate the new look, cannot find anything, cannot mass delete on andoid, the old style was clearer. Not flipping happy
- There are things I like better about Hotmail, and there are things I prefer having seen Outlook in Office 365. That being said, what I despise is that they don't communicate so that I can't clean up my mail box in one way or another and have it be in the same status simultaneously in both places!!!!!!!!!
- Your new system sucks, it is unresponsive and ridiculous- give us a clue how you expect to keep us as clients
- I have had the same email address 'Hotmail' since the beginning in the 90's. I had decades of saved documents in different email folders. I was proud that people who knew me over 20 years ago could still locate me. I loved that the look and feel did not change and was one of the few things in this modern world I could count on. I'm greatly disappointed in the new look and feel and worse. I'm disappointed that all my data I had stored is gone and I have no one to call to correct this. I was even more disappointed that I received a request to authenticate in my Junk mail and I dismissed it as spam. I should have been redirected to an authentication site when I tried to log into my account or when I logged into my account an automatic authentication should have occurred. I would have preferred an option at that time to keep current 'legacy' look and feel or update to new look. I hate the new look and I mostly hate that decades of data , I stored no where else is now gone. To the wise...go back to printing out everything, including pictures and documents and put it in a fire safe box. Technology destroys history.
- Unable to access my hotmail address without putting the @outlook.com. Old password worked but it's all blank no older mails or history like starting new but at least it did login. Question is whether the entities you set up to us a @hotmail accept the @outlook.
- Personally, I don't care if naming caused world ending thoughts in a few people with all the confusion you have created. As far as I am concerned you can call it all peekaboo I see you. What is important though, is the ease of use for the product. Hotmails appearance was user friendly. It was quick, EFFICIENT. Isnt that is what we all are trying to achieve here ? Now I have an inbox page with a scroll bar that makes me dizzy and all the time I have saved, now makes me look for 1 fish in the Pacific ocean with the name Charlie. You termed it LEGACY. Why did you force the change on those who don't like magically appearing or disappearing themes when the pointer passes over it ? I like simple. Put it back, thank you.
- in my case xeliux.com is perfect for us and our customers, I found them because of the tons of recommendations through the internet everywhere and I am very pleased with the service.
- If it ain't broke don't fix it everything takes so much longer biggest one scanning through and not being able to delete multiple mail in junk folder is super painful
- I feel that I might be safe through this transition. The saying goes' It's clear as mud', thanks Microsoft. I understand it's business, but leave thing well alone 'when their working' especially when no one is complaining. Now people are complaining with the confusion they created.
Ah the corporations must have their blood money, so no matter how they get it or where it comes from we're on the hook. - Outlook Mail or Outlook Web App, wasn't only for browsing outlook.com email addresses. I had an email address from a private institution with their own domain which was accessed this way. Only just realized a few minutes ago that it has now changed to the redesigned blue colour instead of the familiar light orange colour. Can't get in to the account at the moment, but I'm not sure if that's because of the changes.
- Good paper! Question: if someone owns an [email protected] address and an Outlook.com account using this email address, can someone else create an Outlook.com address using the same xyz name? If yes, the possible confusion it creates makes a nice gift for phishing makers...
- I agree with the person who said the current way to store emails into folders is terrible, any chance of bringing the old way back?. Also, when you receive emails sorted by 'date' they appear similar to how they did before - one email after another. But when you sort by 'from' the emails get broken up with a blue bar repeating the name of who the emails came from - that's really not necessary and is a visual impediment. Can I get rid of that format?
- The new system of storing e-mails in folders is EXTREMELY time-consuming and inconvenient.
- I work at Deloit and we adquire business email of xeliux.com and it could be linked with any email client like outlook for pc and it is optimized for any device.
- Yes I got this and am aware of the history but to add injury to insult Microsoft have now eliminated outlook web access serve page and it just comes up with microsoft as of 1/4/16 (is this a Microsoft April fools preso?) Dumb-and-dumber too!!
- Great post Joel. I've been so confused about all the changes and the branding. You really cleared it up for me. Appreciate it.
Thanks. - I just wrote a comment, albeit an angry one, but no curse words, I might add and when I went to upload it they said they were 'moderating' it. Really! What on earth does that mean. I'm tryng to get an answer to my intial post
- I produce a newsletter for my community of 1000 plus homes. I have approximately 600 residents who receive the newsletter. Throughout the month I also send residents pertinent information for the community. I use Groups for these 600 residents which are divided into 67 groups and pay a subscription so that I can send out bulk emails to bulk addressees. This stopped working at the weekend and I was told by their Support to make my groups smaller - I said I would do this if they could tell me where the Group pulldown was now because it had disappeared. They sheepishly said that they were moving to a new platform and some features were not yet fully installed!!!! And that day by day things were changing and I would just have to keep trying to send emails to multiple addressees in Groups. As new residents are moving in and want to be put on the distribution list I can't yet add them because THERE IS NO GROUP FEATURE!!! CAN ANYONE HELPME!
- I still use windows live mail, I hate the new mail app in windows 10! It is ridiculously limited. I can't even have html signatures. There are other problems with it, but I add a signature to my emails with links to my photography websites - easy advertising. Windows 10 mail is worse than the basic email app you get on your phone. It doesn't belong on a pc. I got an email from Microsoft saying that windows live mail will cease to work soon and I have to use the mail app. I really hope they wake up and leave it alone!
- Question: Are there any plans at Microsoft to port the Outlook PST file from the desktop to Outlook Mail? I have used Outlook for ages on my PC and do not care to lose all of my calendar history and would want to port over all of my old email and the email folder structure.- Mike
- @George Schwarz: Did you ever get a reply,? I for one don't even use Microsoft anymore, its All Linux, All The Time! And while there are those who will say Linux is 'hacking' software, or that its not secure because its 'open' I can earnestly say that having been using it since 2003/4 I've never had any problems with it! I've already 'converted' me mum, my sister, and my two younger brothers to Linux and they also have not turned back. I would suggest to you, that you look into LibreOffice, as this office suite is more than capable of keeping up with a day-to-day usage quotient. From spreadsheets to Power Point presentations, you'll not have many issues with it. Add in the fact that you can customize the entire office suite form icons to themes, and you have on heck of a powerful suite that doesn't require you to shell out a hundred and ANY-dollars in order to install it. Matter fact, this entire office suite is FREE!!!
- How long does Outlook.com keep my emails? They seem to disappear after a couple of months, which means I cannot store those I need to indefinitely - re-enter paper copies which I'd rather not do.
Thanks you, Dulcie - You might mention that the Outlook email client auto sign in has to be changed from hotmail.com to outlook.com or it will mysteriously quit working without explanation.
- To me the best email program is Eudora v7.1 I have been using earlier verisions up to the final v7.1 Since Windows 95 ( I think)
It has worked on all the Windows upgrades 95, 98, Vista, XP, 7, 8 and now 10
I prefer to have all my emails and attachments on my computer, easy searching no down time.
I can save emails and attachments with no trolling by the likes of Microsoft and Google.
The Eudora program has not once crash on over all these years.
You can keep someone elses servers where you store your personal info for all to hack.
Go Eudora - 'To add to the confusion, current users were allowed to keep their @hotmail.com email addresses, but new users can no longer create accounts with that domain. Instead, new users can only create @outlook.com addresses, even though both email addresses use the same email service.'On this..! I checked and observed even at present creation of hotmail.com option is there while sign up as a new user..Looks homework was not done completly before posting the article... :(
- Many Companies Use The Music Chairs Name Change Dance - I Hate Them.I Am Still Using Lots Of Legacy Software And Hardware - POP3 OUTLOOK 2003 PRO With GMAIL Being One Of Them.It Still Works For Me - Thank You Very Much.XPOCALYPSE FOREVER !
- Don't forget msn.com. I still use that.
- Oct. 1, 2014Satya Nadella, CEO
Microsoft Corp.
1 Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052Dear Mr. Nadella:I have held off writing this letter for several months, but today have reached the point that I must call an ongoing problem to your attention.Because Microsoft discontinued support for Office 2003, I “upgraded” to a combination of Word and Outlook 2013. I put quotes around “upgraded” because, since spending $189.99 in March, I not only have to contend with a client that doesn’t work as well as the older model, but also because I have had to call for support several times. In fact, that the applications work so poorly so often, I spent another $170 for the “Assure” support services.However, that hasn’t provided smooth sailing either.First, unlike Office 2003 and despite what Microsoft states on its website, Word and Outlook no longer work together. With the 2003 client, when I wrote an email, I wrote and edited in Word 2003. The interface was seamless and the macros and other settings worked — believe it or not — perfectly. That is no longer the case in Word and Outlook 2013. My own solution is to write in Word and paste the content into an Outlook email. It’s an extra step that contradicts the efficiency Microsoft touts for its customers.But second, and perhaps more importantly, Word 2013 fails to retain the default settings or macros — shortcuts I have built and used since 2003. About every three weeks or so, I have had to call the Assure line for help. I recorded the most recent interaction with Assure tech support, and saved it so I need not call again for this particular problem — which arose again today and which prompts the use of my valuable time writing you. The fact that this is a recurring problem indicates a patch or fix of some sort is necessary.And that brings me to the final point: I recorded the last two conversations with Assure support, with the most recent phone call Sept. 21. If you only take the time to listen to the most recent interaction, I wonder if you would find the support satisfactory. Here are some of the points from that interaction I’d like to emphasize:• There are long wait times. I truncated the wait and hold times of the entire episode, but I spent about 70 minutes, all totaled, for this interaction.• There is an endless loop of (I wish I could say this nicer) stupidity with respect to macros. The continued and repeated claim that I need to be referred to some other support operation has to be rectified with each call. Listen to the conversations and you will see what I mean.• There is a language barrier. I am sorry to bring this up and in other areas I have been vocal about my dislike of off-shoring American jobs on general principle. But in this case, the off-shoring results in less-than-adequate customer support and satisfaction.Finally, I would like to note that over the years of using Microsoft OS and clients, I have been frustrated that there is no way to “lock in” settings. Once I have my personal (emphasis on the word personal) computer configured, I’d like it to stay that way — desktop icons where they are, defaults as I want them, etc.I hope you or someone at Microsoft can address these issues.Sincerely, - I use the Thunderbird e-mail program. I can access both hotmail and g-mail. Works awesome.
- I hate Outlook. Every time I try to search my emails, I get a message 'cannot connect to Outlook. Try again later.' This usually happens when I desperately search for an email from my boss. #verypissed.
- One thing that I find interesting is if I logon to outlook.com with an outlook.com email address, it nags me that I've got ad blocker on, but if I logon to outlook.com with my trusty hotmail address it doesn't.
- I'm still using @hotmail.com as my main email. Each time Microsoft decides to rock the boat, I just scroll thru the lunacy until I see 'ya, you can still use your hotmail address' and I soldier on. I've had the address for so long, it would take me years to change all my sign ins and contacts.
- Same here. I do prefer my gmail, but it would take so long to change everything...
- Michaelatsea.
I am 90 and I am looking for some INTELLIGENT FLEXIBILITY from Microsoft, not AUTOMATED RIGIDITY, even with their best intent.
I am traveling for over some three months using an Asus touch-screen laptop with (I now discover) the quirky MS Windows 10 OS. It will sometimes take charge, switching between different Windows with the type fonts zooming from 4pt to 72pt or larger, and back, for minutes at a time, while an uncontrollable cursor skitters all over the different screens.
I use a land-line phone at home, but only a local disposable phone appropriate to the country where I am when away. I use the laptop for communication through Skype and Hotmail. My movements have frequently had me out of reach of ISPs.
In the midst of a travel communication using Hotmail, Microsoft interrupts with a screen that asks me to confirm my password for my security. I have a list of over fifty different account passwords of growing size and complexity. The computer hangs on to some of them, but it appears that in a similar scenario using Skype I had used Hotmail to confirm who I was, and changed the password. “Error.”
“Account security password request, account security password reset, account security password error, account security code, account recovery request,” REPEAT, and Windows 10 goes spastic ! Argh !
I am now locked out of Hotmail, my address book, my friends, my travel correspondence.
“Your security is important to us”
“Recently, we received several requests to gain access to [email protected]. Unfortunately, we were unable to verify your ownership using the information that was provided. Microsoft takes the security and privacy of our customers very seriously. We are committed to protecting your personal information, and our careful account recovery process is intended to protect you from any possible malicious activity.”
“Now what?” - Their new lay-out really sucks? Too crowded, too hard on the eyes, and it shows too much personal information (contents of the emails). Could be bordering on invasion of privacy.
- I'm still using my Hotmail address as well and it still works. However, I miss the old format because I can no longer delete emails in mass from my iPad or mobile. I haven't tried logging into the new 'Outlook' from a PC but I'm hoping that I can update the message views to remove the preview of an email on the far right and delete in mass. Horrible design...I really wish these email services stayed simple with the old school email formats. Some of us want simple and quick...not this tedious and frustrating crap. So annoyed!
- I had both gmail and hotmail.com... I only use the hotmail now and have no plans to change that... if forced I guess I'll start using PM on facebook for my email... sinnce I don't use FB anymore that should work... all these changes are just noise... stop the change for change sake...
- I can't find the addresses for frequent people contactedl. How do I get my address book back!!!!!
- You didn't even mention Outlook for Mac. While it has the same name it's only a similar product to the Windows version. When you search for help even specifically entering Outlook for Mac and it's version info, Microsoft will direct you to it's Windows help.They posted an online video on using tags in OneNote. Didn't bother to mention the directions were not applicable for Mac users.All these Outlook names reminds me of 'This is my bother Darrell and this is my other brother Darrell' from the old Bob Newhart show.Now we are plagued by I use Office365 as the name of the email, service or app.
- Is it just me .... I want something simple and bullet proof like Hotmail. If it aint broke dont fix it Microsoft. Look at what happened to Coke when they stuffed around with the recipes, the company gurus and marketing people got it wrong and they had to re-invent Coke Classic after loosing a huge share to the competition. I have a camera that's a camera, a computer that's a computer, a phone that,s a phone, if something breaks I can still use all the other things till I get it fixed ... please simplicate things, its a lot less stressful for real ordinary people.
- Agree ONE MILLION PERCENT with this comment. I've been using Hotmail for around 15 years and just sigh when these changes occur. I have a new desktop computer and Windows 10 has issues, such as the Media Player doesn't let me rip CDs. With 'hotmail', on Dec 6 allof a sudden that live tile stopped updating. I just now removed it, and will have to figure out how to add a new link/tile.I was thinking, you can buy a new Mason (Ball) jar lid today and it fits a jar that is 40, 80, or 100 years old. Something to be said for standardization and backward capability.
- Love my hotmail address. Wasn't allowed to access it when I worked in the Middle East. It had connotations! In the interim, I had to open a Gmail account, but back to Hotmail when I returned home. Now it has memories for me.
- Theres been 100s of times over the years that I prayed to God to be able to reach through the screen and beat the **** out the morons that came up with all this Hotmail garbage
- My original email address ended @msn.com which I still use to this day Will I be able to continued using that email address as I do now in Outlook.com?
- No.
- What I do not understand is why the performance of Outlook Mail is so slow? Or is it the back end, Outlook.com, whichhas suffered the dramatic performance reduction? Hotmail used to be brilliant because it was fast and functional. If gmail was not as bad, I would have left by now. What happened, and why can neither Miscrosoft or Google replicate the performance of the old hotmail service? (And please do not parrot the line that it is because they are throwing so much effort into 'security'.)
- I do not like the NEW Microsoft outlook it is too cumbersome. Bring back or at least give the option to use hotmail.
- This is the last straw. i am switching over to gmail.
- Part of the journey included the MSN platform, which I subscribed to some time ago. I realize the discussion is related to all those 'outlook' names mess, but msn stayed for a reasonable time to be ignored... by the way, still works nicely regardless of the mail client name do jour.... :)
- I think the idiots in HR and branding employed by Microsoft need to take a good long look at themselves and ask the question: do I really know what I am doing? I think we all know the answer to that one.....
- HR has nothing to do with products and branding.
- Well yeah they kinda do Linda... They are the ones who hire these morons who make all the changes.
- i only get half a screen; this is bs
- This microsoft email sucks!! Bring back hotmail !!!!
- When using Microsoft 'anything', use with caution. its a mud trap. VB code just to write a up a button to open something like a page, regular code would be 4 lines long with a memory clear.... Microsoft code? 20 lines long and no memory clear... hate to see how bloated the coding for the operating system is... would explain a lot of the errors, glitches, and need for security patches.
- Heck I've had an account with them for so long my email address is @msn.com. It still works and I use it daily and its the only one I have.
- Its difficult to read my emails because I only get half the screen
- Do yourself a big favor and get 4securemail.com for added security. I dont mind paying 5 bucks a month for added security. Stay away from free email accounts. The reasons are explained on Q and A at 4securemail.com
- then why the ^&$%# is my sign-in URL https://login.live.com
- Since it has been changed to Outlook, opening my emails now seems to take forever, sometimes I just give up waiting.
Then a pop up window appears saying it can't load do I want to wait or kill.This didnt happen before with live.com. - hotmail.com still works and will always work unless microsift want a revolution on their hands....the next new thing is alsways on the horizon ...is always there to take center stage....marketing people and developers want the limelight for their creations before thinking of something even more radical...they are not the end of line users...WE ARE....and when something isnt broken you dont tell your clients you are going to fix it anyway....you leave the name the same and you improve the product....
- I still have a @hotmail.com account from 1997 and a @live.com @outlook.com.
- I think i remember something standart in windows called outlook.. But its always been hotmail for me. I just hope i can keep my @hotmail. And not be forced to migrate it to @outlook or whatever the new name is gonna be ( its microsoft, ofcourse there will be a new name ;D )
- My head is spinning. :)I remember using Outlook Express, then switched to Oulook (part of Office 2003) - before finally switching to Gmail and never looking back.
- To make things more confusing, @hotmail.com email addresses still work, and Microsoft still uses the live.com domain when you sign in. Once you're signed in, the address for Outlook is outlook.live.com. I wish Microsoft would streamline all their services and domains like Apple did. Even though I still have .mac and .me email addresses, I use icloud.com to sign in to my Apple account.
- I have had a Hotmail.com Email address for what seems like 20 years and have been notified that it will be going 'away'. What I am not very sure of is what it will become, since Microsoft has never been very good at explaining their vagaries!
I have decided to transfer my Email account to gmail.com and 'giveup' on Microsoft! I also am using Win7 Ultimate and may go to some version of Linux before I use Win10! - I really like this post... Nice One!! Kudos to you!!YES! It did really made my head spinning!!
- I'm still using my hotmail address. Hey it works for me.
- Hi, yes, it is still possible to use your Hotmail address. For new users, Microsoft gives two options, either a Hotmail address or an Outlook one. Sometimes it's a bit confusing. It's well explained here:
https://accountscreatenew.com/hotmail/hotmail-sign-up/
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