Bob Lucas

Microsoft announced that HTTP access to Hotmail accounts from Outlook
Express would be no longer be available after June 30th. (I understand
that implementation of that decision has been postponed.)

I have two "grandfathered" Hotmail accounts and one "grandfathered" MSN
mail account - so I installed Windows Live mail on my computers. I also
imported my all of my Live Hotmail / MSN mail addresses into Windows
Live Mail. I have retained Outlook Express on my computers, for access
to newsgroups and various POP3/SMTP email accounts.

I use my primary xxx@xxxxxx Hotmail address as my Live ID sign-in
for Windows Live Mail and also for Windows Live Messenger.

I logged onto my primary Hotmail address via the Internet and imported
my Windows address book. The Live interface synchronised the resulting
contacts list with my Hotmail account and Windows Live Messenger. Then,
I removed a few duplicate entries and re-created my distribution lists
(from OE) in Windows Live Mail and Hotmail webmail. So far, so good.

However, there are inconsistencies with the way Hotmail (via the webmail
interface), Windows Live Mail and Windows Live Messenger sort my
contacts.

Hotmail (webmail) sorts contacts alphabetically - surname first. Then,
if I use the contact list to send an email to Joe Bloggs (appears in the
contact list as Bloggs, Joe), the outgoing email shows the addressee's
name correctly as "Joe Bloggs".

I have also configured Windows Live Mail to sort contacts
alphabetically - surname first. However, if I use the contact list to
send a message to Joe Bloggs, the resulting email shows the addressee's
name as Bloggs Joe. In this respect, Outlook Express and the Hotmail
webmail interface are much better. Is there any way of configuring the
contacts list in Windows Live Mail to sort the list by Surname - but to
send outgoing emails with the addressee as Joe Bloggs, not Bloggs Joe?

Windows Live Messenger is even worse. The contacts list sorts by
First Name only - and unless I am mistaken, the only sort options are
"Display Name", "First and last name" or "email address". There is no
way to to sort by Surname first. Why not?

Surname first is the most logical sort method. There are no less than
seven contacts called David in my contact list - and only one "Smith".
Need I say more? I certainly do not want to sort contacts by first
name.