Change Hotmail address (alternate email address)

When you created your Hotmail account, you had the option of setting up an alternate email address for your profile; this is the email address Hotmail uses in case you need to reset your password, for example. The alternate email address is a setting you can easily change after the fact. In this tutorial, we will show you how to change your Hotmail address (alternate email address), as opposed to changing your Hotmail account, something we'll discuss in a later tutorial. All you need is access to another email address you want to use as backup (and we'll give you some advice on choosing an alternate Hotmail email address).

Change your alternate Hotmail email address

To change your Hotmail address, go to the Options menu, and choose More Options. Hotmail will load the general options screen, which contains four sections: click on the "View and edit your personal information" link under "Manage your account".

The next screen shows your profile information, and a section labeled Password reset information - the third line reads "Alternate e-mail address", and displays the other email address you have previously entered, or none if you have not.

Click on the Change link, and Hotmail will bring you to the change Hotmail address screen.

Supply your new alternate email address

To prevent someone from change your Hotmail address without your permission, this screen asks for a password: this is your Hotmail account password, and you will need to enter it in order to change your alternate Hotmail email address.

Once you have entered your password, type the alternate email you want to change your Hotmail address to; enter it a second time (this is Hotmail ensuring that you have not made a typo in your alternate email address).

Double-check the information you have entered, and click the Save button to change your alternate Hotmail email address. If the change was successfully applied to your account, you will be automatically redirected to the profile information screen you just came from, with the following confirmation message displayed at the very top:

This confirms that you have changed your Hotmail address!

Important considerations when you decide to change your Hotmail address

Next time you need a password reminder to be sent, Hotmail will email it to the alternate address you just supplied and saved. If you want to change it again in the future, just follow the same procedure. You should avoid using an email address from your current Internet Service Provider (ISP), since you can change provider, and no longer have access to that alternate email address; likewise, you should not use your job's email address, since you never know how long you will stay with your current employer. (Your employer will nearly always change your email address' password at the very least, and in most cases delete it after a while.) An ideal solution to change your Hotmail address is to use a free Yahoo! Mail account, for example (or AOL Mail, etc.)