One way we are evolving Hotmail is to help you do more with your email right from the inbox. Another way is to bring the features you expect from traditional desktop mail experiences into Hotmail. With Internet Explorer 9, we can now tailor Hotmail and deliver application-like experiences on Windows 7.
Most of you know that you can now launch Hotmail just like you launch other Windows applications by pinning Hotmail to your Windows taskbar. To do this, sign in to Hotmail in IE9 and go to your Inbox. Now, drag the Hotmail tab from the address bar in IE down to the taskbar, and drop it there. Once you’ve pinned Hotmail, you can check your email just by clicking the icon – no need to open IE and navigate to a bookmark. Hotmail also uses IE 9’s new jump list feature to let you compose a new email or go straight to your Calendar or Contacts just by right-clicking on the Hotmail icon in the taskbar.
This week, we’ve been working on taking the next step and supporting notifications. Some of you may have seen this in the past few days, and we’re finishing the release of this feature today. This means when you’re signed into Hotmail and you’ve pinned it, we’ll show you a notification of how many new messages have arrived since you last checked your inbox.
This works like the mail tile in Windows Phone: the icon updates to show the count of messages that have been delivered since you last did something in Hotmail, and it clears when you do something in Hotmail like visit your inbox or read a message. So, now I can leave Hotmail open in the background while I do other work, and I can tell at a glance whether I have new mail.
If you’re running Windows 7 and using Hotmail, download Internet Explorer 9 today and try pinning Hotmail to your taskbar – we think you’ll like what you see.
Dick Craddock
Group Program Manager, Hotmail
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