Hotmail Tutorial

Table of Contents The new Hotmail Hotmail.com Create a Hotmail account Hotmail sign in Hotmail sign out
Read your emails Show images and content Downloading attachments Deleting email messages How to unsubscribe from mailing lists (newsletters) Mark spam email as junk mail Report phishing scam emails Mark emails as Unread / Read Hotmail email Reply to emails Forward emails Compose a new message Formatting your emails Send attachments File attachment size limits Add pictures to your emails Create a Hotmail signature Sending your email Send Hotmail emails from different email accounts Send plain text emails Change importance of emails Select multiple emails The standard folders Hotmail Inbox Hotmail Junk folder Hotmail Drafts folder Hotmail Sent folder Hotmail Deleted folder Create a new folder Rename a folder Empty a folder Delete a folder Hotmail Contacts Add a sender as contact Create a new contact Edit contacts' information Delete a contact Merge or remove duplicate Hotmail contacts Import contacts in Hotmail Export Hotmail contacts Contact categories Hotmail Tips View Hotmail email headers Hotmail X-Originating-IP View emails full screen Check for new emails Print Hotmail emails Hotmail Help Setup another email account in Hotmail (to send emails) Check another email account from Hotmail Sort your emails Search for emails (How to find an email in Hotmail) Create email filters Automated vacation replies Use Hotmail as default email program Customize Hotmail Options Hotmail Login Hotmail account Change the name displayed with your email address Change your password Retrieve or reset your WL Hotmail password Forward your emails to another email account Skip "Hotmail Today" Hotmail.com in English Hotmail.com en Español Keyboard Shortcuts Delete your Hotmail account Change Hotmail Theme Save or delete your sent email messages Change Hotmail address (alternate email address) Change Hotmail picture in your account profile Change Hotmail account Hotmail Messenger Hotmail Messenger Download Hotmail Plus Contact Hotmail customer service (Hotmail Plus & billing) Cancel your Windows Live Hotmail Plus subscription Hotmail Live Hotmail Kids Hotmail POP3 settings Hotmail IMAP Settings Incoming Mail Server Setup Hotmail on your iPhone or iPod touch Hotmail Outlook settings You've reached the daily limit Outlook Connector Hotmail Gmail Hotmail Yahoo!

You are here: Free Email Tutorials › Hotmail Tutorial › Change Hotmail theme (and how to get more themes)

Change Hotmail theme (and how to get more themes)

Change Hotmail theme By default, Hotmail has the same appearance (or "theme") for everyone; but Hotmail also comes with 12 standard themes (including the default blue theme) and 6 dynamics themes, some of which can be switched to on-the-fly from the Options menu. Windows Live Hotmail themes do not change the functionality of Hotmail, nor the appearance of buttons and icons, but it adds some life to the experience with background image and colors. In this tutorial, will explain how to change theme for your Hotmail account, revert to the neutral theme, and introduce dynamic themes.

Hotmail themes are similar to what you may know as "Windows themes", which allow you to customize the look and feel of your PC. A Hotmail theme is a bit more simple, but it is the same principle.

Switch to another Hotmail theme

Change Hotmail theme on-the-fly The easiest and quickest way to change Hotmail theme is to click on the Options menu in the middle top right of the screen.

The second section of the Options menu contains a Themes header: right below it, Hotmail displays 8 square icons with as theme previews; below these icons is a More themes link which we'll discuss in a bit. To preview a theme without applying it, simply move your mouse cursor above the theme preview icon, and leave it there for half-a-second or so: Hotmail will apply the theme, allowing you to see if you like it or not.

Move your mouse cursor away from the theme preview icon, and Hotmail automatically reverts to your current theme:

Preview a Hotmail theme

Behind the scenes, the Hotmail theme you pick is actually tied to your Hotmail account, not the computer on which you are viewing your emails. (Otherwise people at the library would end up with the Hotmail theme the last user picked!)

Apply a new Hotmail theme

Once you have previewed a Hotmail theme you like, you can apply it simply by clicking on its preview icon: as soon as you do, Hotmail applies the theme you clicked on, and will remember this selection. When you close your browser and come back to it later, from the same computer or a different one, you will see Hotmail with the latest theme you picked.

The screenshots below show you how a Hotmail theme is applied: in the left screen, we see your Hotmail home screen, and your standard Hotmail inbox on the right. These are shown with the beautiful "Moonlight" theme:

The Hotmail theme called "Moonlight"

(Quick note: the absence of ads on the screenshots does not have anything to do with themes themselves - you can remove the ads by signing up for Hotmail Plus.)

Theme-picking tip: because the latest version of the new Hotmail uses low contrasts and pastel tones, you will be surprised at how much oomph and substance a dark-colored theme will bring to an otherwise somewhat bland visual experience (our opinion). The "Carbon" theme (shown in the next section) and "Moonlight" theme (above) are our favorites!

Find more Hotmail themes

Get other Hotmail themes As we mentioned earlier, Hotmail comes with 12 standard themes, but the Options menu only displays 8 of them; to see all Hotmail themes currently available, click on the More themes link right below the theme preview icons.

This will load the Themes screen, which contains all of them.

As before, simply move your mouse above one of the theme preview icon, and Hotmail will apply it for your review within the second. Unlike the theme previews from the Options menu, clicking the theme icon on this screen applies the theme, but does not save it: you need to click on a theme and then hit the Save button.

More Hotmail themes to preview and change
(If you change theme and try to navigate away from this page, Hotmail will notify you that the new theme has not been saved, and ask if you want to leave the page anyway.)

Using dynamic themes with Hotmail

We have so far only mentioned "standard themes", or static themes, that are a simple background image displayed in underlay. But Hotmail also supports dynamic themes, which change images based on the time of day and the weather.

To use a dynamic theme with Hotmail, go to Options > More themes, and scroll down to the Dynamic themes section: there are currently 6 such themes.

The 6 Hotmail dynamic themes

Each dynamic theme's preview icon will change every 3 seconds to let you preview some variants of the theme. The process works the same way: move your mouse over the dynamic theme icon to preview it; to accept and apply the dynamic theme you liked, click on its icon, and click on the Save button.

Creating custom themes for Hotmail

Designing your own Hotmail theme While the following is not insider's knowledge, it is not difficult to imagine that Hotmail would sooner or later let you use custom images as themes. The latest version of the Firefox browser introduced "personas", and does just that (as does the Opera browser). Stay tuned for news on Hotmail themes and custom themes; we will update this tutorial as soon as we hear something concrete! (Custom themes would at least be very feasible as standard themes.)

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