Update For Windows Live Hotmail

October 31, 2008 By Digital Trends Staff

Microsoft has given its Windows Live Hotmail a makeover, and added a few new features to make life easier for users.

If you logged into Hotmail yesterday, you’ll have first seen a screen announcing a new look for the service. As Microsoft said in its blurb:

“No big changes – more like a repainted room than a remodeled house. We’ve just made a few improvements to Hotmail based on feedback from customers like you.”

The look is indeed slightly different, and there is a choice of themes for those who want them, but there are a few other things that users will find more useful.

Contact Picker, for instance, simplifies looking up contacts when writing a mail, and there’s also a predictive text feature in addresses, much like Google’s Gmail.

A reading pane allows users to preview messages either to the right side or bottom of the inbox, a feature reminiscent of Outlook.

Microsoft claims the new service will offer 70% faster access to their mail, and new features set for the coming months will include greater storage and the ability to send instant messages from the inbox.

Showing 12 comments

Marshall Wirt at 4:45pm 11th December 2008 I too am having a problem with printing. I can only print the first page. I went into help center and it told me it had added a print on the bar for this except it does not show. I have written help center several times but no reply. If i can't print i may as well go back to verizon.net or outlook express. Other than that i have no problem with the new format.
Ed at 7:37am 25th November 2008 Like an insurance company that promises not to drop you if you have an accident, but then triples your premium...

Microsoft is pushing for people to install the Windows Live Mail Client or use Outlook.

I plan on forwarding my messages to an alternate account for now. You can find this setting in the "Manage Your Account" heading on the account options page.

It's interesting that all of these options result in messages being stored somewhere other than MS hosted storage...
Anoy at 12:36am 24th November 2008 I CAN'T DELETE MY EMAILS NOW! Holy ****.
It's going to get flooded very soon and I hope hotmail sees this.
chris at 11:14am 18th November 2008 Yes, they indeed took a giant step backwards. No dragndrop on building contacts list, you can only see a fraction of the contacts or mail items per page, no options to change that. The solution is gmail or yahoo mail, Microsoft makes software to make money, Google and Yahoo strive for functionality. If they had a "Classic Live Hotmail" then I might consider switching back.
Pablo at 4:15am 14th November 2008 Dude, i loved to select multiple emails with shift key and now its gone WTF!!!!!
aramis at 7:56am 9th November 2008 TO add to all complaints: hotmail AGAIN not readable in thunderbird anymore!
the previous update already sucked as my bf and I could no longer keep both are accounts open as we are used to at home
I do not need all these other features, just email and nothing else thx
buzz at 8:37am 7th November 2008 Agree with almost everyone here! "Improved" I don't think so.. Can't see size of email anymore for one thing?? Grrrr!! Somebody please hear this at hotmail...
Craig Goslan at 8:34am 7th November 2008 Hotmail have made such a bad job and the glaring interface is so horrible that I have moved to gmail to get my e-mails from now on. If the intention of the change to Hotmail was to drive people away then you have succeded. Faster it may be, but it is horrible to use. In your bid to make Hotmail faster you have neglected the feelings of the users.
lyndy at 4:19am 5th November 2008 I had a technician try and change my hot mail back to the original format but no luck. I am so upset and disgusted I do not know what to do. The left collumn that contains your contacts -sent-delete- etc. is a blur. these things appear to be typed over one another not to mention this one word list occupies about a a 4 inch column which takes away from your reading and writing space. I would love to have the opprtunity to speak with someone but I guess I will end up going to yahoo if it isn't straightened out soon. Why do people think they need to change things? Milk and cookies, peanutbutter and jelly. Some things are just fine the way they are.
Luke at 1:59pm 4th November 2008 I don't know about anyone else, but I LOST functionality. I used to have a choice between the new version (new in 2007) and the classic version. Well, I got used to some of the shortcuts available in the new version. This latest "improvement" has taken away all of these shortcuts. I can't see the size of the email. I can't select multiple messages by using the shift key. I can't just right-click on the Deleted folder to empty it. I can only see about half the number of messages in my inbox (or other filders) than before. Basically, this just looks like a repainted version of the "Classic" version. It's like we went backwards.
Sue at 8:50am 4th November 2008 In the old version I had no trouble printing email messages at all. Now I have to shrink the message to 50% or it won't print the whole thing - I need a magnifying glass to read it! I hate it when they "improve" things! I also tried to find a link to get help but none of them are working for me either.
Tonia at 2:37pm 3rd November 2008 I am frustrated with the new version of Windows Live Hotmail that magically appeared on my desktop one morning several days ago. I have tried multiple paths to complain to the Windows Live Hotmail "team," however of the 12 "feedback" or help links I have tried, none of them are working. I can only assume that they are busy with a b'zillion other users who are falling asleep waiting for this system to function. A-a-r-g-h. Poor product and poor service.