Outlook.com: At last, a worthy MS mail program

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	WOODY’S WINDOWS Outlook.com: At last, a worthy MS mail program
	By Woody Leonhard Last week, Microsoft unveiled Outlook.com, a replacement for the venerable Hotmail that doesn’t look or act anything like the Hotmail you know. Like Hotmail, Outlook.com is a free Web-based mail service — but with a hint of Metro-things to come.

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The full text of this column is posted at windowssecrets.com/woodys-windows/outlook-com-at-last-a-worthy-ms-mail-program/ (paid content, opens in a new window/tab).

Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.[/td]

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Thanks Woody, I still rely on Outlook to keep my mail “close to me”, you did not mention if it was possible to use POP or IMAP to download mail received in Outlook.com. Does it exist ?

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Thanks Woody, I still rely on Outlook to keep my mail “close to me”, you did not mention if it was possible to use POP or IMAP to download mail received in Outlook.com. Does it exist ?

You need to use the Outlook Hotmail connector for that, but yes, it will allow you to use Outlook.com accounts with Outlook. I am not sure the Outlook versions for which the connector is available, but it is available, at least, for Outlook 2007 and 2010 (also works for Outlook 2013, now in preview).

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Went to Outlook site but could not find any way to open a new account. Only option apparently presented was to convert my existing hotmail one. The only “big blue box” (not very big) was one called “New” to create new email.

did I miss something?

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Went to Outlook site but could not find any way to open a new account. Only option apparently presented was to convert my existing hotmail one. The only “big blue box” (not very big) was one called “New” to create new email.

did I miss something?

Sign out of your current account and then go to Outlook.com. You should be able to create a new account there. See this thread – http://windowssecrets.com/forums/showthread//148050-Goodbye-Hotmail-Hello-Outlook! for a more detailed discussion of Outlook.com.

Joe

--Joe

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My current installed email clients: thunderbird, outlook express and windows live mail (I’m still an XP user like 66% to 75% of the monthly visitors to the website I manage). I jumped on outlook mail the day it was available and I think it’s current incarnation pales in comparison to gmail. No pop or imap capability. No ability to manage your inbox by date or from or subject. These seem like simple things that have been around forever. But not with outlook.com for me. Puzzling.

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Outlook.com may be a worthy MS mail program, BUT, like hotmail.com, live.co.uk & hotmail.co.uk, you have to enter your username & password everytime which is a bit inconvenient. Using it in WLM or Thunderbird defeats the object.
You can set it as your home page but it isn’t as flexible as the other older mail accounts when MSN could be your home page, giving access to your mail inbox.

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No ability to manage your inbox by date or from or subject. These seem like simple things that have been around forever. But not with outlook.com for me. Puzzling.

You can arrange your inbox at Outlook.com by date, from, subject or conversation.

You can set it as your home page but it isn’t as flexible as the other older mail accounts when MSN could be your home page, giving access to your mail inbox.

My Outlook.com inbox appears on my “My MSN’ home page.

Bruce

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You can arrange your inbox at Outlook.com by date, from, subject or conversation. Bruce

Strange how I missed that before. I list my mail with the newest last and I couldn’t find a way to do that. Now I see I just have to click on date until the arrow goes the right way. One problem solved!

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My Outlook.com inbox appears on my “My MSN’ home page.

Bruce

Seem I’ll need to have a closer look.

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No thanks, I will keep my Outlook 2007 email client. All my email is routed via GMail so I can use that as my mail archive. Gmail is great when I need to search for an email that I may have filed in a folder somewhere in Outlook. Also, Outlook.com forces me to read every email since opening the “Reading Pane” actually opens perhaps dangerous emails. Gmail solves this problem by using snippets that are the leading few characters of the text in the message. Of course, Outlook 2007/2010 gives me the powerful view “Messages wih Auto Preview” that gives me about 3 lines of text at the beginning of the message. Yahoo Mail, Outlook.com, Hotmail, and most other offer nothing even as advanced as snippets and not even Thunderbird offers Messages with auto preview.

Outlook.com also does not have integration with a calendar, nor provide appointment alarms. Without an appointment book Outlook.com is worthless. GMail is integrated with Google Calendar, but it does not give appointment alarms either. I think that Ourlook.exe may be Microsoft’s very best software in the 2007 edition. I will not replace it any time soon.

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No thanks, I will keep my Outlook 2007 email client. All my email is routed via GMail so I can use that as my mail archive. Gmail is great when I need to search for an email that I may have filed in a folder somewhere in Outlook.

Outlook.com also searches all folders by default, but this and other search filters can be changed at Advanced Search.

Also, Outlook.com forces me to read every email since opening the “Reading Pane” actually opens perhaps dangerous emails.

You can turn the reading pane off. And view message source in plain text if you’re worried about reading an email on the web.

Outlook.com also does not have integration with a calendar, nor provide appointment alarms. Without an appointment book Outlook.com is worthless. GMail is integrated with Google Calendar, but it does not give appointment alarms either. I think that Ourlook.exe may be Microsoft’s very best software in the 2007 edition. I will not replace it any time soon.

Outlook.com does have an integrated calendar, with event reminders.

I just accepted an emailed meeting request via Outlook.com and it automatically created an appointment in my calendar with a 15-minute reminder set by default.

I can also create an event there and invite people from my contact list.

Bruce

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I used Hotmail and was recommended by Microsoft to “convert” to Outlook.com. So I did; all my mails were trandsferred to Outlook.com, even my folders from Hotmail. But when I need to create a new folder in Outlook.com I get the message that I have reached the maximum of folders created by me. Even if I delete an existing folder I am not allowed to create a new one.
The result is that my mails must be placed in a folder containing various type of cases…….,

Q: how to be able to create a new folder?

Windows Live Mail is much better; will this program also disappear?

Thanks for a good answer

bjoeng

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As close as the two mail services are, I still prefer Gmail’s interface.

Two months ago I decided to give Gmail a try as my primary email account. That experiment lasted one week and then I paid for Microsoft Exchange Online. If you like Outlook, and I do, Gmail just won’t cut it.

The primary omission is folders. Google claims that categories are superior because you can apply multiple categories to a message but can only store the message in one place. A good point, but Outlook has had categories for a long time, which means you can have categories and folders. Outlook.com adopts the same strategy.

For a free email account, I’d take Outlook.com over Gmail.com in a heartbeat.

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Thanks for the info as always!
My question(s):
I use Outlook 2007 and have been concerned in past as to what will happen if i upgrade Office, since it no longer is part of the more ‘basic’ versions. Does Outlook.com mean the death of Office based Outlook altogether?
If not, is there a way to keep using Outlook 2007 with Office 2010 or 2013?

Next: My Iphone is synced to the outlook email app. What is the situation with using Outlook.com?

thanks for all your help in the past and now!

Barry

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I use Outlook 2007 and have been concerned in past as to what will happen if i upgrade Office, since it no longer is part of the more ‘basic’ versions.

I think only the Home and Student version of Office does not include Outlook.

Does Outlook.com mean the death of Office based Outlook altogether?

No, it will just replace the free webmail service previously known as Hotmail.

If not, is there a way to keep using Outlook 2007 with Office 2010 or 2013?

Probably: Can I use Outlook 2007 and Office 2010?

But some advanced features may be missing: Using Outlook 2007 with or without Word 2007 installed

Next: My Iphone is synced to the outlook email app. What is the situation with using Outlook.com?

You can either just access the mobile version of the new site or set it up for use with iPhone Mail: How to set up Outlook.com email on your iPhone or iPad

Bruce

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Thanks Bruce!
Barry

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What I don’t like and why I am not setting up an account right now, is that they require a date of birth.
What could that possibly have to do with email? If they want to know if I am old enough to agree to their term and conditions (which I don’t get to challenge except to not play along) all they need is a check box stating “I am over the age of 18”.
All including a date of birth is another hole that my personal information goes into that can be breached by a hacker or an “accidental” exposure of their database.
No thanks

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What I don’t like and why I am not setting up an account right now, is that they require a date of birth.
What could that possibly have to do with email? If they want to know if I am old enough to agree to their term and conditions (which I don’t get to challenge except to not play along) all they need is a check box stating “I am over the age of 18”.
All including a date of birth is another hole that my personal information goes into that can be breached by a hacker or an “accidental” exposure of their database.
No thanks

If a website or online service in the US stores your email address they are required by federal law (COPPA) to ask for your age and strongly advised to ask for your date of birth.

It’s to protect children under 13 from divulging information without parental consent: Can I block children under 13 from my general audience website?

A check box stating “I am over 12 years old” is specifically excluded from being sufficient to comply with those rules.

Bruce

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Bruce,
I would have to disagree with you based on your stating that COPRA is the reason for the date of birth requirement.
According to your source, “The Act applies to websites and online services operated for commercial purposes that are either directed to children under 13 or have actual knowledge that children under 13 are providing information online.”
This is an email service, not a website that is not directed at children under 13. And if they don;t ask for a date of birth, then the “children under 13” would not be divulging that information.
it is pretty obvious that what they want is the info so they can build demographics to be able to sell for targeted ads and other marketing.
Jeff

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Bruce,
I would have to disagree with you based on your stating that COPRA is the reason for the date of birth requirement.
According to your source, “The Act applies to websites and online services operated for commercial purposes that are either directed to children under 13 or have actual knowledge that children under 13 are providing information online.”
This is an email service, not a website that is not directed at children under 13.

You don’t think Outlook.com is legally regarded as either an online service or website or both?

If they don’t screen out children under 13, without making it obvious that they are doing so, and they ever become aware that a user is under 13, then that federal law requires them to jump through hoops to obtain parental consent and grant parental access. So like many other sites, they opt for the relative simplicity of screening out users under 13.

And if they don;t ask for a date of birth, then the “children under 13” would not be divulging that information.
it is pretty obvious that what they want is the info so they can build demographics to be able to sell for targeted ads and other marketing.
Jeff

You’re right that they could just pretend that no one under 13 ever signs up for Hotmail if they allowed any age, but I think they would face far more criticism for circumventing the law by that means. Many sites (including this one) would rather avoid the complexities of dealing with children under 13, e.g.:

Note, however, that even where a child himself has not revealed his age on the site, actual knowledge will be present where a site learns of a child’s age, for instance, from a concerned parent who has discovered that his child is participating on the site.

Today I received a Happy Birthday email from Windows Secrets Lounge. Why do they do that? Because they can. Why can they do that? Because when we all signed up for this forum we were asked for our date of birth. Why were we asked for our dates of birth at this site? To screen out pre-teens for exactly the same reasons that Outlook.com does.

Why were you happy to provide a date of birth when you signed up here but find it offensive at Outlook.com?

Bruce

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That’s all well and good. But all I want to do is ask you a question about your recent article on Outlook.com! And there does not seem to be a way of contacting you and asking you a question. My question has to do about what the heck is ‘Outlook.com’? I have been using Outlook for many years. I did try LiveMail for a day or so when I upgraded to Win7, but went right back to Outlook almost immediately. Now using Outlook 2007. Is this ‘new’ Outlook a replacement or update of my current Outlook — and why should I care?

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That’s all well and good. But all I want to do is ask you a question about your recent article on Outlook.com! And there does not seem to be a way of contacting you and asking you a question. My question has to do about what the heck is ‘Outlook.com’? I have been using Outlook for many years. I did try LiveMail for a day or so when I upgraded to Win7, but went right back to Outlook almost immediately. Now using Outlook 2007. Is this ‘new’ Outlook a replacement or update of my current Outlook — and why should I care?

No; you shouldn’t.

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I like the new Outlook.com but there may be an interesting problem for Office 365 users (like me). If I’m logged in to Office 365, the Outlook web app for Outlook.com either sends me to my Office 365 page or won’t let me see the Outlook.com page while Office 365 is open. And so (as far as I can tell based on an evaluation of an hour or so), I have to affirmatively sign out of my Office 365 account in order to examine my Outlook.com account. I don’t know yet whether that will be a “show-stopper” for this user.

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I wouldn’t worry too much about the date of birth issue. You can supply any false data you want. Its always nice to easily knock a few years off my age and be young again. :rolleyes:

Jerry

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Heck, I’ve been 21 for 39 years. :rolleyes: :whisper: Don’t tell anyone!

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Have a Hotmail and Live.com email addresses which I rarely use/check and have a feeling that my new Outlook.com email address will be the same. Even though I have MS Office Pro I never use Outlook. I cringe when I find that an email application stores all your email in one blob file.

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I don’t recall entering my date of birth when installing Windows 8 Release Preview. The installation process set me up with a Windows Live ID. I got Outlook.com just by logging in and entering my Windows 8 RP password. no request for any additional information to open the Outlook.com account. Maybe I forgot the entire setup process from the Windows 8 install, but I don’t recall ever entering any personal information for the Windows Live ID.

I also don’t recall getting any recent Happy Birthday messages from Windows Secrets nor the Lounge. Maybe that’s because I originally signed up a few years ago. But yes, WS and The Lounge do ask the Date of Birth when updating or signing up for the first time. All I seem to get each year are Renewal Notices for my paid subscription. And I’m not complaining about not getting a Happy Birthday message.

-- rc primak

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I don’t recall entering my date of birth when installing Windows 8 Release Preview. The installation process set me up with a Windows Live ID. I got Outlook.com just by logging in and entering my Windows 8 RP password. no request for any additional information to open the Outlook.com account. Maybe I forgot the entire setup process from the Windows 8 install, but I don’t recall ever entering any personal information for the Windows Live ID.

Windows Live IDsign up redirects to Microsoft Account Sign up which does ask for Birth date.

What is a Microsoft account and do I need one to use Windows 8 Release Preview?

Bruce

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This page was the one I used to set up my Windows Live ID. As you can see, it does not ask for date of birth. Neither did Yahoo when I signed up for my Mail Plus account, which I used on that Windows Live ID signup page. As long as you’re using an existing email address for your Windows Live signup, you aren’t bound by Microsoft’s signup process, but by the signup process of your existing email provider. But I do notice that at some point, my date of birth has gotten into my Windows Live ID Account Information. So it must have been asked for at some point. Just not on the signup page I used when installing Windows 8 RP.

-- rc primak

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I have not had to include a DOB for my live ID either. I do not remember ANY log on where I had to add a DOB. There have been a few that this was optional info if I wished to include it, but this type of optional info I do not include.

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Hotmail had a number of folders limit, possibly that has persisted in outlook.com. You may try to create subfolders, instead of folders, as I believe the limits are different for top folders and subfolders.

Live Mail is independent from outlook.com. Outlook.com is a mail service, which also has a web client. Live Mail is a desktop client. It is included with Windows Essentials 2012, so it doesn’t seem to be going away. You can use Live Mail to access your outlook.com emails.

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Thanks ruirib

I can neather create folders nor subfolders. Rightclicking a folder shows a menu where “Create subfolder” shows but I still get the message that the max folders/subfolders have been reached after naming a new one. So, may be I have to use Live Mail to be able to do so. It will be splendid how Outlook.com react on this. Hotmail also mooved the mails I mooved in Live Mail to the same folder in Hotmail. I think the two programs were syncronized.

May be there will be a thread later covering Outlook.com. It is a Beta-issue so far, as I have heard.

Thanks anyway for your answer.

bjoeng

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How many folders and sub-folders do you have? The Hotmail limit is apparently 128 top-level folders (but allegedly unlimited sub-folders and up to 9 levels of nested sub-folders).

Bruce

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