Hotmail Sign in Page (New Version)

New version of the Hotmail sign in page When the Windows Live team upgraded their Hotmail webmail service in the summer of 2010, the updates went beyond the email portion itself, and affected the Hotmail Sign in page as well, with a couple of changes that warrant discussion, including changes in security for the better - enhanced protection of your account and profile. The credentials you use to sign in to your Hotmail account are exactly the same with email address as user name (your "Windows Live ID"), and the same account password, which means that the upgrade will mostly be transparent, and not require any new familiarization. This tutorial is a brief overview of the new Hotmail sign in page and the impact it will have (mostly behind the scenes) on your online email experience - free Hotmail and Hotmail Plus alike.

Overview of the new Hotmail Sign in page

Here are some of the new features of the Hotmail sign in screen and the form you use during Hotmail sign in itself (again, no change on the surface, everything works as it did before).

First, here's a screenshot of the relevant portions of the new Hotmail sign in page:
This login form is the one you see on the right of the screen when you type "hotmail.com" or "live.com" in your web browser's address bar, and you are not currently logged in (and not set to automatically sign in to your Hotmail account). Notice that nothing has changed in the top four fields: you will enter your email address and password as usual, and optionally use the login option that allow Hotmail to remember your Windows Live ID and/or password on that particular computer, using the web browser you use to check your emails.
Notice also that you can now "Get a single use code to sign in with" - without going into much details at this point, this new feature allows you greater security when you want to login to Hotmail from a computer that isn't yours: by supplying your cell phone number, you can get a temporary password to use just once from a public location (thus preventing someone watching you typing, or a key logger from recording a useful password, which could otherwise be used to hack into your Hotmail account).
Next, you will also notice the absence of the "SSL" secure version of the sign in page, which used to allow you to login using an "encrypted" connection (near impossible to hack): this is because the new sign in page is automatically served in secure mode, as you can tell by looking at your web browser's address bar when you go through the login process (regular email checking and trivial account activity beyond the sign in page are still served in "HTTP" mode, or unencrypted).

The security of your Hotmail account is helped with automatic SSL encryption, but remain careful whenever checking your emails; this includes regularly changing Hotmail password, avoiding public computers when possible, and not sharing your credentials with anyone. (Windows Live will never ask for your password: any message that appears as coming from Hotmail and asks for your password is a phishing attempt!)

And these are the most notable features that have been added over the past few months to the new Hotmail sign in page. A more in depth discussion of some of this new functionality will follow in later tutorials, like mobile and secure access to your email account.

Summer 2011 Update: no longer multiple sign in options from the same form

The Windows Live team has released an update to the Hotmail Sign in that now prevents the page from displaying multiple email addresses as choices if several people (or different accounts) were used from that particular web browser. Microsoft cites both security and privacy concerns, as well as usability (their studies showed that users became sometimes confused by seeing all these email accounts, something especially true from a shared or public computer!) Everything else on the form remains the same, this is just a "behind the scenes" upgrade that affects only the login process and number of accounts stored.

Tip: this doesn't mean that you can no longer check multiple Hotmail accounts from the same machine, though. You will either have to sign in and sign out as needed, to switch email account, or use our tips in our "Sign in to different Hotmail accounts on the same computer" tutorial.

Hotmail Tutorial 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 Delete all emails from a person Unsubscribe from mailing lists Mark emails as Unread / Read Hotmail Instant Actions Unflag / Flag email messages Hotmail Quick Views 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 signature Sending your email Send mail from other accounts Send plain text emails Change importance of emails Select multiple emails Mark spam email as junk mail Spam and junk mail settings Block email senders Unblock email senders Report phishing scam emails The standard folders Hotmail Inbox Hotmail Junk folder Hotmail Drafts folder Hotmail Sent folder Hotmail Deleted folder Show or hide email folders Create a new folder Rename a folder Empty a folder Delete a folder Mark an entire folder as "Read" Hotmail Contacts Add a sender as contact Create a new contact Edit contacts' information Delete a contact Remove duplicate contacts Import contacts into Hotmail Export Hotmail contacts Contact categories Copy / transfer Hotmail contacts Add picture to contacts Block emails from non contacts Add Safe Senders to Hotmail Hotmail Tips View email headers X-Originating-IP Show / hide basic headers View emails full screen Check for new emails Print email messages Hotmail Help Add another email account Check another email account Sort your emails Find emails with "Search Tool" Create email filters Automated vacation replies Use Hotmail as default email Hotmail account start date Customize Hotmail Options Hotmail Login Hotmail account Sign in to different Hotmail accounts on same computer Hotmail automatic login option Sign in as a different user Check last Hotmail access Hotmail Sign in page Change "From" name in emails Change password Reset your Hotmail password Change security question Forward emails to other account Skip "Hotmail Today" Change Reply-to email address Disable sent email confirmation Show conversations / threads Disable conversation grouping Disable photo / video previews Change Hotmail language Hotmail.com in English Hotmail.com en Español Change country setting Change birthday / birth date Keyboard Shortcuts Delete your Hotmail account Reading Pane Settings Change Theme Switch back to the old Hotmail Save / delete sent messages Change Hotmail address Change profile picture Change Hotmail account Hotmail Messenger Hotmail Messenger Download Hotmail Plus Cancel Hotmail Plus subscription Hotmail Customer Service Hotmail Live Hotmail Kids Set Hotmail as homepage in IE Hotmail as homepage in Firefox POP3 settings IMAP Settings Incoming Mail Server Setup Hotmail on iPhone Hotmail Outlook settings You've reached the daily limit Outlook Connector Hotmail Gmail Hotmail Yahoo!