Windows Live Chronicles: WL Hotmail

Windows Live Support Team

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 15:57:54 GMT

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!

Help us to improve Windows Live Hotmail!

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 15:54:17 GMT

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

Tips to manage your Windows Live ID

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 21:54:36 GMT

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. :)

Windows Live Hotmail Quick tour

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 17:02:05 GMT

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

A little more information on @live domain launch

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 17:46:09 GMT

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!

Fill in your profile information!

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 20:52:35 GMT

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:

About personal information stored by Windows Live ID

Windows Live ID collects personal information to operate an authentication service, to improve security, and provide customer support for Windows Live. Windows Live stores your credentials, your question and secret answer, your ZIP code or postal code, your country or region and, if you provide one, an alternate e-mail address .

Some Windows Live ID sites and services require your e-mail address. When your e-mail address is required, Windows Live ID always shares your e-mail address. Your password, question and secret answer, and alternate e-mail address are never shared.

When you sign up for a Windows Live ID site or service, that site or service determines the personal information it wants you to provide. All of the personal information that you provide may be stored by that site or service.

For more information about the personal account information that Windows Live ID collects, see the Microsoft Online Privacy Notice.

Windows Live Hotmail update is around the corner!

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:49:43 GMT

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

Hotmail Auto-upgrade

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 18:04:45 GMT

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.

Did you know Hotmail supports one-click sign in?

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 13:40:07 GMT

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

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 17:43:32 GMT

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?!

why @live

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 20:35:34 GMT

I have to tell you that, when I first heard about @live.ca is going to be available I was very excited.

First of all, a fresh new domain! Finally, I can get a chance to get an email address that I want with a recognized domain name. I finally do not have to feel embarrassed when some new friends ask me for my email address, instead of saying something like jacky_mok_0123@hotmail.com or jackym1234@hotmail.com, I can finally say, my address is jackymok@live.ca. Clean and easy to remember. Moreover, @hotmail.com has been around for 10 years now, it is such a stable product that everyone knows about. @live.ca domain give my identity a fresh new look, so when I'm meeting new friends, I can show them I'm staying at the bleeding edge of technology :). Most importantly, I always have wanted to separate my identities from one account to another: when I'm talking to my friends, I'd like the conversation to land in one account (i.e. jacky_is_a_fool@hotmail.com) ; when I'm chatting with my family overseas, I want the conversation to land in another account (i.e. jacky_the_family_man@hotmail.com), but I never have the flexibility or urgency to do that, now with @live.ca domain launching, it's the perfect timing for me to get a little more organized with my life.

The obvious question to come up is that, why bother to spend the time and effort to manage so many different accounts, passwords, interface? Does the reasonings above justify the time and effort? I'm glad to say that Windows Live has the answer for you. Windows Live gives you all the tools you need to integrate your multiple accounts into one. This goes back to one question that andyman asked. We provided you a set of tools to help you migrate partial data into your new account, but at the same time, we provide you all the tools to keep all accounts up and running, without the hazzle of maintaining multiple accounts at the same time. Some functionalities include single-sign on [sign in to your accounts at the same time without signing off], inbox aggregation through Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Alerts for new contents, and various other service integration as well. To consumers, the distinction across different accounts will be fuzzy. You will get access to all your different accounts within the same interface, settings and experience without logging in and out. Just imagine you "log into" Windows Live, and you can pick and choose your "personalities" with a click of your mouse when you conversing with your friends through whatever means.

To me, @live.ca is much more than "another account", it's the identity that I could get for free. More importantly, it is the identity that Ilike and will last with me. In the future, I will very likely be using multiple personas when chatting with my friends/families/coworkers, and I wouldn't want one of my persona to be jacky1234@hotmail.com, I want something short and slick. @live.ca is definitely one of the things that I'll get for sure.

@live.ca domain launch for Windows Live

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 14:07:08 GMT

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

The Outlook Connector beta for Windows Live Hotmail is now available!

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 17:49:11 GMT

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.

New Sign-in Page for Windows Live Hotmail!

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 13:31:17 GMT

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

Top 5 hidden feature in Windows Live Hotmail

Fri, 25 May 2007 15:33:12 GMT

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.

Windows Live Hotmail Viral videos

Wed, 16 May 2007 18:00:18 GMT

Video: Windows Live Hotmail video (part 4)

Video: Windows Live Hotmail Video (part 1)

Video: Windows Live Hotmail video (part 2)

Video: Windows Live Hotmail video (part 3)