Email Clients Tutorials
Hotmail Tutorial
Hotmail Sign In
This tutorial explains how to sign in with Windows Live Hotmail: this is the process of logging into Hotmail when you are either signing in for the first time, have logged out of your previous Hotmail session, or are using a public computer to check your Hotmail emails. A separate tutorial will explain how to deal with Hotmail sign in issues and error. We will go over the sign-in screen and the various options you have to log into your Hotmail account, etc. (This tutorial assumes that you have already signed up for a Hotmail account.)
Sign in to your Hotmail account
Once you start using Hotmail, you will be able to determine whether the system should keep you signed in, or if Hotmail should ask you for your credentials (password, or email address and password) every time you want to check your emails. But, in the scenario where you are logging in for the first time, or signing in for the first time on the particular computer you are using at the moment, Windows Live Hotmail will display the following screen:
On the left, Hotmail displays the information needed for someone who wants to sign up for a Hotmail account. On the right pane of that screen (labeled "Sign in"), are displayed the controls (textboxes, checkboxes, links, and buttons) you use to sign into Hotmail and other Windows Live services. Let's take a closer look.
Hotmail sign in screen
Windows Live Hotmail's sign-in screen is displayed on this screenshot. The first field is labeled "Windows Live ID": this is where you enter your email address in the form userName@hotmail.com. (In other words, your login user name is your full Hotmail email address.) In the next field, type in your Hotmail account password.
Notice next two checkboxes: first, Hotmail gives you the option to Remember me on this computer: if checked, this means that Hotmail will "remember" your email address next time you come to this login screen, on this computer. In fact, Hotmail will set a "cookie", or small text file, inside your web browser's settings: the implication is that Hotmail will in fact remember you on this computer when you are using this browser. (A good way to have multiple Hotmail users using different accounts on the
same computer is to each use a different web browser.)
The second checkbox, "Remember my password", allows you to tell Hotmail to keep you signed in, and automatically skip the sign in screen next time you visit hotmail.com - note that you cannot have the second checkbox checked without having the first one checked too: in other words, if Windows Live Hotmail remembers your password, it will have to remember your email address as well.
Automatically sign in to Hotmail
If you check both checkboxes and click on the Sign in button, Hotmail will create a cookie containing your login information, and instructing it to automatically sign you in next time you want to check your emails. Simply make sure that the two checkbox are checked, and Hotmail will take care of the rest.
Sign in to Hotmail from a public computer
If you are checking your emails from a public library or from school on a computer that isn't yours, here are a few security precautions you can take: do not check these two checkboxes, and make sure to manually sign out of Hotmail (as described below) when you are done reading your emails. Do not close the browser window when it still shows your Hotmail inbox, otherwise the next user may end up in your inbox if you haven't properly signed out. Please see our more in-depth overview of the Hotmail login process, or how to login to Hotmail from a public computer.
Sign out of Hotmail
By the same token, Windows Live Hotmail gives you the option to sign out whenever you want: this will clear the "automatically sign in" settings you may have configured above, and ask you for your credentials (login information) next time you go to hotmail.com...
Hotmail displays your user name in the top right corner of each screen: to sign out, or log out, of Hotmail and other Windows Live services, simply click on the Sign out link displayed below your name, as shown on the screenshot. Once you click Sign out, Hotmail will log you out of the system, and redirect you to msn.com (another Microsoft-owned website).
Sign back into Hotmail
The next time you get to the sign in screen, Hotmail will either ask for your password only (as shown on the screenshot), if you elected to have your email address or email address + password to be remembered.
If you want Hotmail to stop pre-filling in your email address as well (if you are using a computer in a public place, for example), you just need to click on the Forget me link: this will instruct Hotmail to stop storing your email address as well. If you clicked Forget me, you will see the following sign in screen next time you go to Windows Live Hotmail:
Neither your email address nor your password now are remembered (as if you had never signed into Hotmail from that computer or web browser).
Hotmail sign in security options
By default, Hotmail will sign you in using default security settings, which are secure enough for most people (email is by default not a very safe mode of communication in the sense that any email you send, with Hotmail or otherwise, will be relayed from one server to another until it reaches its final destination).
Windows Live Hotmail gives you the option, however, to use a more secure sign in mode: at the bottom of the sign in screen, notice the following Use enhanced security link:
If clicked, this link will tell Hotmail to always use an encrypted page for the sign in page: once you are signed in though, Hotmail will revert to its normal mode for sending and receiving emails (un-encrypted, like regular web pages). Depending on your web browser, the address bar will become green to signify that the sign in page is using an "Extended Validation Certificate" (very safe way to browse the web).
Revert to normal security for the sign in screen
To revert to using normal security settings for Hotmail's sign-in page, simply click on the Use standard security link:
And this concludes our Hotmail login tutorial! You are now equipped not only with an excellent understanding of the login options available, but also, perhaps mainly, with the security precautions you should take when checking your Hotmail account from a public place (or a friend's computer).
