hotmail

With the launch of Microsoft's new Outlook.com, which is set to replace its current Live (formerly Hotmail) email service, a number of Windows Phone owners quickly acted to save their desired @outlook.com email address. All good and dandy, but using the new Outlook address in place of your Live ID is a separate matter.

Should you decide to completely replace your Live ID with your new Outlook address, then you'll be required to reset your Windows Phone to be able to make use of integrated services and the Marketplace. This is a pain for those who have a lot of apps installed and have the device set up to the way that suits the owner. The good news is that all your purchases are saved and moved across to the new Outlook address, but what if you weren't aware of the fact you'd need to reset your device and don't wish to do so?

It is Monday so what better way to start the week off than with a roundup of some of the more interesting Microsoft news? We have three more stories for you that might strike your fancy:

• Microsoft gets caught with juvenile coding prank in Linux
• AT&T and Microsoft differ on counting online gaming for broadband
• Microsoft’s Live services (Hotmail, Skydrive) are set to go Metro in the coming weeks

So head on past the break for some roundups!

Want to get a whole new Live ID and start fresh with Microsoft? Here's how to transfer your account.

Microsoft's Live ID (soon to be renamed "Microsoft Account") is the key to all things from Redmond these days. Whether it’s your Xbox 360, SkyDrive, Live Mail, Zune Pass, App Hub account, Messenger or Windows Phone, your Live ID is at the heart.

The question is what if you want to change your Live ID?

Here we don't mean switching just on the phone, which unfortunately requires a hard-reset (and no, we don't have a work around for that, sorry). Instead, we're talking about what if you have an old Hotmail.com email account and you want a new Live.com one instead? Maybe you're not happy with your current user name or like us, you have used your Hotmail account since 2002 as a glorified spam experiment.

We'll walk you through the process of getting a new Live ID and making sure all your other services back-propagate to reflect the change keeping all of your services intact.

Read on after the break for our guide...

The Windows Live team have published an article on the official blog that'll help readers who are possibly considering to switch from Gmail to Hotmail for email and other cloud services. Should you be on the fence about leaving Google, and wish to take up Microsoft to host your e-life, there are only three simple steps you're required to take to achieve this goal.

1. Create a Hotmail account. A Hotmail/Live ID is required (name@hotmail.com/name@live.com) to use the web service, but there is no domain restriction. When signing up for an account (should you not already possess one) you are allowed to use your own personal domain for email.

2. Import your old messages from Gmail. Should you not wish to use an email client to do the job, a service such as TrueSwitch will work wonders moving across from Gmail.

3. Connect your Gmail account. You have now successfully set up your Hotmail account, but one more optional step is available. You can have Hotmail actively retrieve any future messages that you receive on your Gmail account by carrying out the following:

• b. Click Sending/receiving email from other accounts.
• c. Click Add an email account.
• d. Provide your Gmail account details.

Rocking out Hotmail is arguably the best way, should you not be using Exchange of course, for Windows Phone email users, since improvements have been made to the service and it integrates seamlessly with all other Microsoft products.

Source: Windows Team Blog

There was a pretty cool announcement yesterday over at the Windows Team Blog by Microsoft's GPM, Dick Craddock, on how to set up any existing e-mail account from any service to work in tandem with Hotmail.

Just as the suite of free software packed in the set of Windows Live Essentials has become better and better over time, so too has the feature set of the Windows Live service. The social life of Messenger has become extensively robust - even including a free HD video service that rivals Skype and puts Google's video chat to shame. Mesh and Skydrive leave you with nearly no excuse to not have the files you need or having the Office applications to run or edit them. Finally, Hotmail brings it all together by syncing your Calender and Contacts from multiple accounts and services and keeping you up to date on external services like Flickr, YouTube, Facebook and more - and sorting it for you.

There are plenty of reasons why someone would want to condense their e-mail services. From Microsoft's standpoint, this can get people who are too set on using their current e-mail provider to give Hotmail a try without feeling a jolt of e-mail culture shock. Secondly, it could get people who stopped using Hotmail to come back.
 
We're going to take a quick look at why you should give it a try, or for a lot more of you, why you should try it again. Keep reading after the break as we show you everything you need to know!
 

The updates keep rolling in for Windows Live. This go around, Hotmail gets new security features.

The features include:

• Hotmail detects if legitimate user accounts are compromised and treats them differently than accounts that spammers setup themselves to send spam, working with the user to help them recover their account.
• New account proofs that identify which personal computers and Windows Phones are trusted to access your Hotmail accounts.
• More secure proofs. Previously (and still on other services), users could add/remove proofs with just their password. Now, the ability to validate an existing proof is required to change them.
• Closing back-doors the hijacker may try to leave open. When a compromised account is detected, it is locked to prevent further abuse, and vacation auto-reply messages and linked accounts are suspended.

Windows Live and Hotmail will become more popular as Windows Phone 7 devices begin hitting the shelves in October/November. The more widely used, the greater potential for security threats.

The features are designed to address malicious accounts and to keep hijackers out of legitimate accounts. If you feel your Hotmail account has been compromised or are having trouble accessing it, you can visit Windows Live's Account Recovery site to re-establish your account.

via: WindowsTeamBlog

Windows Live has already gone through a series of updates recently including ActiveSync support. In the next wave of updates, tagged Windows Live Wave 4, Microsoft will be adding (at least) the following features:

• Windows Live Calendar will feature a five day weather forecast. Weather forecast information will be shown in the day, week, and month views. Users will also have the ability to change the city/zip code for the forecast.
• Windows Live Hotmail and Calendar will be adding full-session SSL support.

There's also may be a little house cleaning with Windows Live in the form of a slight name change. Instead of "Windows Live Calendar", we may be referring to the calendar as "Windows Live Hotmail Calendar". While it may sound superficial, it pulls the calendar in line with the other Hotmail features on Windows Live.

While the word "imminent" was used to describe the Wave 4 update, no hard date has been set for the release.  We also aren't sure what new online features will carry over to the Windows Phone.

via: Liveside.net

It appears that Microsoft will finally flip the switch and enable Exchance Activesync for Windows Live Hotmail. According to a ZDNet UK report, this feature will become active on August 30, 2010 allowing for contacts, calendar and hotmail to be synced with your Windows Live Account (some devices will be compatible with Task sync as well).

This will put Windows Live on an even playing field with Google, who has supported Activesync with Gmail, calendar, and contacts for some time. This will also give the new Windows Phone 7 a more complete connectivity package.

Indications are that in testing, Activesync was fast, simple and glitch free.  It appears the server address for Activesync configuration will be m.hotmail.com but nothing official has been released. 

So with the ability to sync contacts, appointments, and now email with Windows Live I wonder how many will switch over from Google?