Over the last few months we have rolled-out many new features and improvements to your Hotmail account (and we will continue to do so). It is now faster, with better Spam and Virus protection and ever-growing storage. You also have access to Windows Live Messenger directly from your Hotmail page and can access it from any computer connected to the Internet. In the next few days you will now have the ability to send and receive your messages from other email accounts in one place. Hotmail gives you one place to login and check ALL your messages.

You can learn more about these new features from Julie and Hal:

We are working hard to keep our users satisfied, and with close to 19 million users* we are the proud leader of Webmail services in Canada.

Your Canadian Windows Live team

* Source ComScore Canada – May 2009

Over the past year, many of you told us that you wanted a cleaner, faster Hotmail. We released the new Hotmail to meet those needs, and while many of our customers are happy with the changes, others – particularly folks with smaller screen resolutions – are having difficulty using the new Hotmail.

We’ve been listening to all the feedback, and we want to make Hotmail great for everybody. So, we’ve been working hard on more changes based on your feedback:

· We’re modifying the way that scrolling works for those of you who have the reading pane turned off. This will make it easier to see more of your messages and folders, especially if you have a smaller screen. It will work a lot more like Classic Hotmail for anyone who has the reading pane turned off.

· While we work on this change, we’re removing the promotional module in the lower left corner so you have more room to see your folders.

· We’re working on a number of smaller fixes that will reduce errors and the time it takes to load each page. This includes addressing concerns from those of you who use Firefox on Linux, and making it easier to close the contact picker when you’re composing a message.

These changes will roll out over the next month, so you should be seeing them shortly.

Hotmail has even more upcoming changes that will come out a bit later – moving the advertisement from the top of page to the side, adding more themes and other ways to customize,  increasing the number of messages on each page, and embedding instant messaging with Messenger right into Hotmail.

Thank you for your patience and feedback. Keep up the suggestions and we’ll keep working to make Hotmail even better.

- The Windows Live Hotmail Team

P.S. Some of you using Firefox, especially Firefox version 2.0.0.18, are reporting problems opening your mail. We are not yet sure why this is happening, but we are investigating. In the meantime, the problem usually goes away if you upgrade to Firefox 3.

To upgrade to Firefox 3, go to http://www.mozilla.com and click the link to download Firefox 3.

You can find answers to many other Hotmail questions in the FAQ in Hotmail’s Help area (click the (?) question mark in the upper-right corner of Hotmail).

Or, send details about your specific problem to our support team using this e-form, and they will get back to you.

This is not a fancy product announcement but many people don't know this.  A good portion of my day is to evangelize our products, and a lot of times that include answering customer questions and addressing concerns.  A lot of times I receive questions like,

"How do I reset my Hotmail password"

"I forgot my password!"

"My friend got accessed to my account and changed my password!"

"Someone got accessed to my account and sending out random emails!"

"I can't view Hotmail from my browser / computer"

And these folks are panicking and they don't know what to do!  The lucky ones may know someone in MS or somehow found the feedback channel on Sympatico / MSN website and eventually get to one of us.  But a much better, well-supported way exists: http://support.live.com.

Any users (free or paid) users can log a support request at the above mentioned site free of charge, and a representative will contact your via email in a few days to help you out no matter what problem you have.  I'm not saying these reps could help you with *anything*, but they are equipped with all the tools and knowledge that cover most of the common problems like what I mentioned above.  All support tickets are tracked and monitored and we do reply to all of them.  I've often received complaints that the end users did not receive a response, but most of the times that's because they either overlooked the response or the email was trapped in the junk mail folder.

But seriously, the support team responds to each and every of them and they are not automated response :)  Most importantly, they are good.

The call to action here is to spread the words! :)  I know a lot of you reading this post are the tech support in your family / social circle.  Please! let them know that free support exists in Windows Live services and make use of them!

What do you think about Windows Live Hotmail?  Good? Bad? Come on, I know you all have something to say.  We're currently running a survey for Canadians and the link could be found here.

https://www.msnfeedback.com/perseus/se.ashx?s=394BF1642BF07E99

It's just 12 - 16 questions (depending on your answers) and it should take you no more than 3 - 5 minutes.  Please help us out and let me know what you think!  I promise you I'll carefully review every single answer, and if company policy allows, I'll share some of the information in this blog afterwards.

So, please, help fill it out :)

If you are not from Canada, please send me your opinion directly and I'll follow up with the International PM :)

Jacky

Now that @live.XX is open for registration, I trust that you guys all have registered for 1 or more of those.  So how are you managing your multiple emails now?  Are you ditching your old ones?  Are you having problem managing multiples?  I was going to write up something to list everything that we have in our disposal to help managing multiple WL IDs, but today, I found something already online :)

http://www.windowslive.com/tips.html

It talks about Importing and Exporting contacts for different types of WL users, TrueSwitch (US only), using WL Mail, forwarding Emails, The only thing it's missing is linkedID, I'll write about it soon. :)

We've launched a new site that explains Windows Live Hotmail feature sets in much greater details than before.  Very nice.

Check it out!

http://www.windowslive-hotmail.com/LearnMore

I wish I could tell you more, but here is what I got:

We'll be launching our @live.XX domain "in the coming months".  We'll have communication campaigns that go live way before we launch the service, so that you guys will have a heads up.  Stay tuned!

What are your primary reasons that you are interested in getting a new ID?   Get a fresh new start for your inbox? Get the name that you like the most? Or you don't care at all:) ?  Let me know!

I've been receiving quite a few inquiries to reset password for Hotmail accounts.  Most of the times the owners either forgot their passwords or accounts being compromised.  While in some cases we successfully regain control over the accounts, in the others we weren't that lucky.

I've one ask: please fill in your profile information correctly!  Your secret question and answer are your friends!  Many of the people who couldn't prove their ownership of the accounts could have saved themselves tons of time if they had their secret question filled!  I'd also recommend to fill in the correct postal code and address information.  Microsoft will NOT release this info to anyone without your consent, and we will NOT mail anything to you!  Fill in the information just in case.

Our official statement:

It's our promise to make our products more useful, easier to use, more reliable every day.  I'm proud to announce that we will be launching the second version of Windows Live Hotmail from now till end of month.

The engineering team has put in huge effort to make improvements on many aspects.  Some of the major ones include:

1) Better Performance :) Kudos to the performance team who worked so hard on this.

2) New common header - you can now access to http://get.live.com (Home), http://spaces.live.com (Spaces), http://mail.live.com (Hotmail) and http://onecare.live.com (OneCare) from the Common header.  You can also search the web and within Hotmail from it.  If you have been following the release announcement of Spaces, you will notice that this header in Hotmail is identical to what was launched in Spaces.  This is part of our commitment that we'll provide a seamless integration between all our products.  Most important, this header is much smaller than the one we had before, giving you more space to read your emails!

3) 5GB inbox for free accounts, and 10GB for paid!

4) Contact management - If you have been reading LiveSide, you'll know Steve has published instructions on how to merge duplicate contacts to keep your address book clean. 

5) Vacation alert/ OOF / autoreply - don't worry, you won't reply to spammers!

6) Mail retention changes- We’ll be increasing the amount of time that we leave messages in your junk and deleted items folders over the next few months

7) Email Forwarding

8) Today's page opt out - you'll be able to opt out from the MSN Today's page, now logging into hotmail will take you directly to your inbox

Just a reminder that you could access Windows Live Hotmail through clients such as Outlook (with Outlook Connector v12), or Windows Live Mail

Since the launch of Windows Live Hotmail 3 months ago, we've received great user feedbacks and comments. Thanks for all your support! 

As you know, our Windows Live Hotmail has been on an opt-in mode for the previous months, Hotmail users who are interested in trying the new interface could take advantage of the new Hotmail, while users who want to stay with the classic look and feel could choose to use it later.  It's our delight to announce that our service has reached our exit criteria and we will auto-upgrade all Hotmail accounts in Canada starting late September!

At that time, users who haven't been enjoying our new interface and functionality in WL HM will be prompted to upgrade.  You'll be able to use our new interface for free with just a click on the button!  As usual, all your contacts, emails, folders and everything you care for will remain!  It's just the same old Hotmail, just better looking and easier to use.

For the international users reading this blog, your hotmail accounts will be upgrading at around the same time as well.

I hope I'm not the only one who knows this :(  But I was surprised that a few people send me feedbacks last week through http://sympatico.msn.ca that they want a faster login system in Hotmail (without the need of typing the entire address / pw every time).

So here's what you need to do:

1) Install Windows Live Sign-in assistant.  Currently this binary is distributed through the latest WL Messenger.  [I realize this is not the right behavior, I mean, installing something packaged with messenger that would change the behavior for Hotmail, but I'm working with the team to address this..]

2) Make sure the option to "Install Windows Live Sign-in Assistant" is checked

3) Use http://mail.live.com instead of http://www.hotmail.com

4) Check "Remember on this computer", and depending on your choice, I also check "Remember my password" (Only do this on your private computer with a dedicated account for yourself!)

5) Click on Login

6) If you have more than 1 accounts, log out of hotmail, go back to http://mail.live.com, click on "Sign in with a different account".  Repeat the same procedure again for the other accounts

7) After you have done all these, you'll see all the accounts you've entered in mail.live.com:

8) Now, if you've checked 'remember my password', just click on any account name and you'll be in the inbox within 1 click!

9) If you don't want it to remember you anymore, simply click on "Forget me" under your name.

Thats' it, then you can log into your hotmail accounts without any hassle.

Windows Live Custom Domains has launched in Canada for a long time now but I still see a lot of confusion around this product, what it can do for you and, most important, how much it costs.  Hopefully this post would serve these purposes.

First of all, let me try to explain what it is through a scenario.  Say, I'm a website owner, and I own http://www.basketballfan.com [fyi, this is fictional, I don't own it].  I built a good size of loyal visitors to my site, and I want to provide them all with an identity that's uniquely from my website, so I decide to give all my loyal visitors email addresses, say person1@basketballfan.com.  There are many ways I could do it, including visiting my domain provider for a mail server quota, or even setup my own mail servers and nice things like that.  There are many considerations to be made prior to choosing one over another:

1) Servers performance and stability

2) UX and usability considerations

3) Privacy

4) Integration with other mail services / clients

5) $$ Cost

Just typing these out has been a headache for me and I'm glad that Windows Live Custom Domains was able to provide good answers.

Windows Live Custom domain helps you with just all these.  You can sign up your domain for Windows Live Custom Domain at http://domains.live.com.  In a few easy steps, you will be able to create unlimited number of mail accounts under your domain name, and you'll have full control over membership administration, settings, service configurations and so on.  Your users will enjoy all the functionalities and features provided by Windows Live Hotmail, and your email service will reside on our server farms, just like any other Windows Live Hotmail accounts out there.

Visitors to your website can create their own e-mail accounts in your domain. This gives you:

• More visits to your website. Visitors come to your website to check their e-mail, and this gives them more chances to explore the rest of what your website has to offer.
• Free advertising. Every time members use their e-mail, they're promoting your website.
• Self-service sign up. Visitors can get their e-mail accounts in real time. No need to wait for you to manually create their e-mail address.*
• Less stress. Let people choose their own e-mail address.

All these user ids will also be Windows Live ID, so you can use them for Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Spaces, Windows Live OneCare, and more!

Better yet, the service is free.

Any questions / comments?!

I've received some questions surrounding the time when @live.ca domain will be opened for public registration and what will be changed at that time, just want to give some information here.

#1 When will it be available?

@live.ca domain launch, or for that matter, all @live.XX, will be launched in their countries in the fall. 

#2 What will happen to my current @hotmail addr? Will it be migrated?

NO, all @hotmail addresses will remain intact and they will all function just like today.  There will be no migration for email addresses.  For instance, even I have mokjacky@hotmail.com today, that won't guarantee me mokjacky@live.ca. It's on a first come first serve basis.

#3 Can I sign up for a @live.com address in Canada?

No, you will only be able to sign up for a @live.ca address.

#4 Say I sign up for a new @live.ca domain, can I migrate my existing data from @hotmail to the new @live address?

You will be able to migrate all your contact information into the new account, but there are a few things that will stay with the existing account, such as: Windows Live Spaces contents (photos, blogs, etc), your emails, subscription status (hotmail plus or premium), association with other products (Favourites, OneCare, etc).

#5 Is there a reservation system that I could sign up for the address in advance?

No,  nothing is in plan right now.  But if that becomes available, I'll definitely make another post here.

#6 Will I still be able to signup for new @hotmail.com addresses after @live.ca becomes available?

Yes, most definitely.

#7 Is Windows Live releasing any other products at the same time to go along with @live.ca?

Yes, we will be releasing a rich family of products at around that time, keep checking back this blog or visit http://get.live.com and http://get.live.com/betas for the most updated information.

That's it for now, if you have any other questions, feel free to leave a feedback or email me.

Jacky

Thanks to some really hard work by a ton of people, a free version of the OLC has shipped to the world!  We are shipping the beta in 11 languages (more than half of which are already on the web)!  On Wednesday, the Windows Live Hotmail marketing pages will link to the connector download pages. 

What is it? 

The Outlook connector allows Windows Live Hotmail users to connect to their inbox using Outlook Express 2003 or higher.  You can send, receive, synchronize emails or contacts to and from your Hotmail account using the desktop client.

Why?

Some of you have multiple Hotmail accounts and have been having difficulties managing all of them (signing in and out all the times could be a problem), using Outlook allows you to look at every mail from every inbox within one interface.  It also allows drag and drop with your desktop environment and all the keyboard shortcuts that you love.

Where?

The beta build is live here.

Cost?

Just like Windows Live Hotmail and Outlook Express, it's totally free to our users.  So stop waiting and start emailing!

For more information:

WL Hotmail team blog: http://mailcall.spaces.live.com/

Liveside: http://liveside.net/blogs/main/archive/2007/06/11/microsoft-office-outlook-connector-beta-now-available-with-windows-live-synch.aspx.

I'm proud to announce that we've just launched the new Windows Live Hotmail sign page!  Starting today, if you type http://www.hotmail.com, you will be redirected to the redesigned page:

What's good about it?

· Quicker login times for users on WLHM

· Single sign-on enablement for multiple accounts

· Common look and feel across sign-in pages and the WLHM interface

1) Custom Filter - Do you know you could setup custom filters so emails from your parents and your friends can land into different folders?

Go Options -> More Options

Select New Filter and make one for yourself!

2) Setting up distribution list - Do you know the "groups" in your Windows Live Messenger is also a distribution list in Windows Live Hotmail?  Just type the same group name in the "TO" box and send to everyone in that group!

3) Shortcut keys - Tired of using your mouse?  The full version of Windows Live Hotmail allows you to use your keyboard to navigate between your mails, up,down,delete,.... All the keys you'd need to check all your mails without clicking!

4) ReceiveFrom and SendAs - Got multiple accounts? You can check your other email accounts from one single login and interface?  All you need is following the simple steps below:

SendAs: 

ReceiveFrom:

5) Want to read your emails offline? You have 2 choices - using Outlook 2003 (or above) with Outlook Connector beta, or using the all new Windows Live Mail desktop program.