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What's new in Windows Live Hotmail?

[September 2009]
Get all your e-mail in one place
You can now receive e-mail from other e-mail accounts right in to your Windows Live Hotmail inbox. Any service that's "POP-enabled" will work, including AOL, Gmail, and Yahoo! Mail (Plus).*
Here's how to set it up. From your Hotmail inbox:
  1. Click Add an e-mail account (it's on the left-hand side of the screen).
  2. Type your other account's e-mail address and password, and click Next.
  3. Select whether you want the messages to go to your inbox or a separate folder, and click Save.
Note: For this to work, make sure POP has been turned on in the e-mail service you're trying to bring into Hotmail (this could involve logging in to the service and changing your settings).
* Requires paid subscription to Yahoo! Plus Mail service.
IM in Hotmail!
Now you can send instant messages from Hotmail. This means that even if you're on a public computer where Windows Live Messenger isn't installed, you can still send IMs to your Messenger contacts.
  1. Sign in to Messenger from within Hotmail by going to the "Messenger" drop-down menu.
  2. To start chatting:
    • If you have an e-mail from a Messenger contact, you'll see if they're online—just look for the green, yellow, or red indicator by their name. Click on their indicator to start a chat.
    • From the "Messenger" drop-down menu, select View online contacts and a box will appear with your contacts. Click on a contact to start a chat.
    • From the People page (your contact list), you can just click the picture of a contact from the contact list. You'll see Send an instant message on the drop-down menu.
Other improvements
To make Hotmail easier to use, we've added these new features:
  • Auto-refresh – we'll automatically refresh your browser window so you always see your most recent messages.
  • Download all attachments at once – no more saving attachments one-by-one, you can now download all the attachments in your message at once.
  • Auto-save – we'll periodically save the draft you're composing so that you don't have to worry about losing your message.
  • Keyboard shortcuts – Quickly navigate your e-mail with just your keyboard.
[January 2009]
Updates…
  • Since October we've built "ever-growing" storage, added more themes, and have launched an update that'll make it easier to manage and share calendars with friends, family, and groups. Some folks are already seeing this stuff. Others will see it soon.
Other new stuff
  • See your many e-mail accounts in one place, even if they're not Hotmail accounts—give them each a folder or put them in your inbox. (coming soon)1
  • Make plans with friends and family more easily. When you're writing a message, it's just one click to add local maps, directions, movie times, and more.2
  • A consolidated address book. Put all your friends, family, and acquaintances in one place – even people you've connected with on many non-Microsoft services like Facebook. Free yourself from frustrating hunts for people's current contact info. Find folks easily when you want to send them e-mails, IMs, photos, and more.
  • A little more social. Go to the Today page to see what's new with the people you know.2
  • Links to other cool services. Windows Live is more than just Hotmail and Messenger. You can store up to 25 GB of photos and files on SkyDrive and share them, make a personal homepage at http://home.live.com, and more.
1We're rolling out a simple tool that will fetch your e-mail from many non-Hotmail services like AOL, Gmail, and Yahoo! Mail Plus. That way you can see e-mail from those accounts organized all in one place without having to log into each service separately. (For Techies: this fetching tool uses POP to import e-mail from other services into Hotmail). Depending on when you are reading this, you may already see this tool in the Options page of your Hotmail account under the section titled "Send and receive mail from other e-mail accounts." If you don't see it there yet, you will in the coming weeks.
2We're trying this cool feature out in just a few countries to get feedback and then hope to make it available in more countries.
[October 2008]
It's faster and better!
  • Enjoy a cleaner look and faster performance.
  • A combined "classic" and "full" version of Hotmail means everyone gets access to all the great features Hotmail has to offer. One version = greater simplicity.
  • You choose how to display your reading pane to preview messages - side, bottom, or off.
  • A great new contact picker makes it easier to look up contacts when writing an e-mail.
  • Type the first few letters of a friend's name or an e-mail address who you want to send an e-mail to, Hotmail fills in the rest.
  • Dress up Hotmail with one of several new design themes.
We're also building some new stuff in Hotmail (scheduled to be available by early 20091), including
  • Ever-growing storage. Your inbox capacity will automatically increase as you need more space2.
  • IM through Hotmail. See if your Messenger contacts are online and say "Hi! :-)"
  • Helpful new calendar features that make it easier to share your calendar with friends and family.
1Some customers may see this stuff earlier.
2We've designed Hotmail storage to grow with you, but at a reasonable pace. That means you should have plenty of storage unless you suddenly want to store the planet Jupiter on Hotmail, in which case we'll send you a nice e-mail asking you to please not try to store planets on Hotmail (although gradual storage of planets, moons, and asteroids is ok).