Hotmail Tutorial

Table of Contents The new Hotmail Hotmail.com Create a Hotmail account Hotmail sign in Read your emails Show images and content Downloading attachments Deleting email messages 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 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 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!

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The New Hotmail: "Windows Live Hotmail"

Throughout 2007, Microsoft has progressively migrated its Hotmail users' accounts from the classic Hotmail service to the new, Windows Live Hotmail service. While many of us still regret the webmail system we have gotten accustomed to over the past 10 years or so, the new Hotmail ("Windows Live Hotmail") brings many features to the old Hotmail experience.

The old Hotmail

This series of tutorials will help you make the most of the new Hotmail, and hopefully help you grow to like it as much as the old one! Learn more about Hotmail.com…

Clearing Some Confusion: Windows Mail vs. Windows Live Mail vs. Windows Live Hotmail vs. Hotmail vs. Windows Live Hotmail Plus

Before diving into our Hotmail tutorials, let us start by clarifying the differences between closely-named, email-related services currently offered on- and offline by Microsoft.

Windows Mail - Windows Mail is the desktop email program that ships with Windows Vista; it is the successor of Outlook Express, and is only available to Windows Vista users (and presumably bundled in future versions of Windows.) You can use Windows Mail with standard email accounts (POP3 or IMAP), but not with the Windows Live Hotmail service. Windows Mail was a short-lived replacement to Outlook Express, and only shipped with Windows Vista; but this tutorial will show you how to run Windows Mail on Windows 7.

Windows Live Mail - Part of Microsoft's "Windows Live" initiative, Windows Live Mail is a downloadable, desktop email program. Like Vista's Windows Mail, Windows Live Mail is free; but it is available to both Windows Vista and Windows XP users. Windows Live Mail does let you setup your Hotmail accounts; it also supports "RSS feeds", unlike Windows Mail or Outlook Express. (What is RSS?)

Windows Live Hotmail - Like Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Hotmail is part of Microsoft's Windows Live offerings. Windows Live Hotmail is the web-based email service ("webmail"), successor to Hotmail. These tutorials will cover Windows Live Hotmail, or "Hotmail", as most people will keep calling it. (Hotmail was the original name, and kept part of the current name because of its widespread recognition - read a bit of history with our Hotmail.com tutorial.)

Hotmail - Hotmail is the old name of Microsoft's webmail service; it is now called Windows Live Hotmail. At the risk of irritating Microsoft's branding department, we will call "Hotmail" the new Windows Live Hotmail service, for shortness.

Windows Live Hotmail Plus - Windows Live Hotmail Plus (or "Hotmail Plus", for short) is the paid version of Windows Live Hotmail, which we'll cover in a later tutorial. Hotmail Plus, as we'll call it, includes more storage space, no account expiration (even if you never check its emails), no ads, and the capacity for larger email attachments. Because flashing banners are so distracting, and add so much download time for every email checked, Hotmail Plus is well worth the $20 per year it currently costs. The biggest advantage of Hotmail Plus, in our opinion, is that it completely gets rid of the ads!

Using the New Hotmail

Much more than the old, the new Hotmail heavy relies on the JavaScript web scripting language (that power features like menus, drag-and-drop functionality, etc.) JavaScript is enabled by default in modern browsers like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera.

Let's now get started with the basics: sign up with Hotmail to create a new email account.

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