Hotmail Sign in

Hotmail Sign in Form This tutorial explains how to sign in to your Hotmail account / Windows Live profile from a web browser; if you are using a program like Windows Live Mail to check your emails, you typically don't need to manually login every time, since Microsoft lets you "remember" your credentials (username and password) indefinitely; that's not the case by default in a browser, for security reasons. So you'll have to go through the sign-in form (pictured left) regularly when checking for new mail in a browser. You'll also learn what precautions to take when using a public computer, accessing your account from a friend's house, etc.

Tip: don't yet have an email address? Create a Hotmail account.

The Hotmail Sign in Page

To access the sign in page, go to hotmail.com or live.com (either one is the official URL), and you will see the login form on the right: if someone is already logged in to their account, click on the "Sign Out" link in the top right corner and start over.

New Hotmail Sign in form Enter your full email address in the "Windows Live ID" text field: it includes your username, the "@" symbol, and one of Hotmail's official domain names, like live.com or hotmail.com, hotmail.co.uk, hotmail.ca, etc. This email address field is "case insensitive" (lower / upper-case letters are considered the same characters).

Enter your case sensitive "Password" in the next text box, making sure that you capitalize it properly.

Check the "Keep me signed in" checkbox to auto-login to your account (see next section for more details), and you'll bypass the sign in form altogether: combined with the option to directly load your inbox (vs. going to the "Windows Live Home" page), you save even more time when checking your emails!

Click on the "Sign in" button to access your account.

Tip: if you cannot login to Hotmail, directly click on the "Can't access your account?" link to launch the password reset process.

Automatically sign into your account

Caution: only use the "Keep me signed in" option from a PC or Mac you trust, since it will allow anyone using that computer to get to your inbox without entering an email address or password (never tick that checkbox from public computers at school or the local library, for example).

Make Hotmail remember your credentials How does it work? If you successfully signed in to your account with that option turned on, Hotmail will have created one or more "cookies" on your computer, for that particular web browser. This small text file contains encrypted information that saves your preferences: if you clear your cookies, or use another browser, this setting will no longer apply (unless you choose once more to let Hotmail remember you).

Security tip for "less safe" locations: click the "Get a single use code to sign in with" link to have Hotmail send your cell phone a "one-time password" for a public computer, so you don't have to enter your "real" password. See our "Hotmail Single Use Code" tutorial.

Sign in as a different user (another email account)

There are several options to check multiple Hotmail accounts from the same computer:

When you are done, you can close or leave open or close the browser window, which doesn't necessarily log you out: but make sure you understand how the sign out process works!

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Tutorial last updated on May 15, 2012
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