Use Hotmail features without changing your email address

If you’ve been reading this blog for the last few months, you’ve seen lots of new features added to Hotmail that make Hotmail more efficient, like Sweep or the ability to send up to 10GB of photos in one message. Some of you sent feedback asking if there’s a way to use these features without the hassle of getting a brand new email address.

We understand. You already have at least one email address and you probably don’t need another. You may also use your existing address for things other than just email, such as signing in to online shopping sites, which makes changing even more challenging. Also, you might have an address that you really like, but a similar name might not be available on another email service. So we looked for a way to make it easier for people to give Hotmail a trial run.

Today we begin rolling out a feature that makes it easy to use Hotmail with any existing email address. Just as you can use Microsoft Outlook with an address from any service, you can now do the same with Hotmail on the web.

Implementing this was fairly straightforward given the architecture of Hotmail, our POP aggregation support, and the "Send As" feature that lets you send mail from any validated email address. We just needed to tweak the way we store and look up email addresses, build the first-run experience, and we had it.

To try it out, you just need to register and validate your email address. Over 30 million people have already registered an email address from another service when signing up for a Windows Live ID to use Xbox, Zune, SkyDrive, or Messenger. If you've done the same, then go to www.hotmail.com and sign in with your Windows Live ID. If you don't have a Windows Live ID, you can sign up for a new Hotmail account now and use your own email address when registering.



Hotmail will guide you through connecting to your old service and importing your existing email using POP, and then you can begin sending and receiving mail from Hotmail with your existing address.

As I mentioned earlier, we’re just starting to roll out this change today, so it may take a few days to reach all of our customers worldwide. When it does, please give it a try, and let me know how it’s working for you.

Dick Craddock
Group Program Manager
Windows Live Hotmail


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