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30 Oct 2008
Microsoft is adding improvements to Windows Live Hotmail that should, among other things, make it easer for users to access their contacts.
A new feature called Contact Picker is designed to make it easier for users to look up contacts when writing an email. And, similar to Google’s Gmail, Hotmail now uses predictive text when a user starts typing in an email address.
“No big changes – more like a repainted room than a remodelled house,” said the Hotmail update notice. “We’ve just made a few improvements to Hotmail based on feedback from customers like you.”
Microsoft said the update will also provide users with 70 per cent faster access to email.
New display settings will give users a reading pane to preview messages on the right side of their inbox or at the bottom, similar to the pane in IBM’s Lotus Notes and Microsoft’s Outlook.
A choice of design themes also lets users dress up Hotmail in different colours and patterns.
According to Microsoft, more updates will follow in the coming months, including more storage space and the ability to send instant messages from the Hotmail inbox.
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Do you agree?
what the hell
Dont know what you've done but i havent been able to read mine for about 3 weeks. Looks like its coming on but after half hour i give up!!!!!
Posted by: evelyngray 11 Nov 2009
Off to gmail too!!
I changed to gmail last week, just had enough of them changing the interface and the fact that it slowed down so much on my work server, don't suppose anybody knows a good way to transfer hundreds of mails from hotmail to gmail??
Posted by: Chris 01 Dec 2008
Not all good
Why did they do away with the message file-size column? This was rather important info.
Posted by: Jeff 01 Dec 2008
hotmail
help! i can no longer open hotmail at all and so can neither open nor send any emails. Improvement - i don't think so. my screen simply says error on page. there is no point replying to my email address as surprise surprise i will not be able to read it.
Posted by: a bowden 29 Nov 2008
total rubbish
new hotmail has wiped out my im setting and only open in very old version now gor gawds sake get rid of the updates and let us get on with thing again
Posted by: Nick Davis 29 Nov 2008
Can't get Hotmail anymore
What a disaster can't get hotmail anymore. Why don't you leave it alone. Am going to Gmail
Posted by: Dave Goddard 24 Nov 2008
Prblems with Hotmail since 1st November 2008
I am finding it impossible to access Hot mail I have an apple mac computer
Posted by: Peter Ryan 20 Nov 2008
UGH
This new hotmail is terrible. I cant find any of my folders, go to my junk mail & I cant find out how to do it anywhere
Posted by: Paula 19 Nov 2008
hotmail - not so hot
I'm definately no techy, and I don't know what the improvements are or how they're supposed to help. What I do know is that I now have turn off the firewall to access mail - surely that can't be right?? Think my easiest option is to open a new account with gmail!!!!! This blog asks for e-mail to confirm comments - don't think I can access it to reply - good luck
Posted by: amanda peberdy 19 Nov 2008
unhappy
your new format, whatever the purpose is no improvement. I cannot open my mail, cannot find a way to go from inbox to junk....in short what's to like about this, even your "contact us" gives no solutions ti the problem.
Posted by: jacqueline san pedro 18 Nov 2008
my hotmail account does not open on my new macbook pro
What up? My account does not load.
Posted by: Lillian Montes de Oca 18 Nov 2008
CANNOT LOG IN TO MY ACCOUNTs
I have 5 hotmail accounts and cannot log in to any of them. WTF?!! Every time I try to log in, it says I have the wrong password. Then, for no apparent reason, about 10% of the time I can log in. But then when I exit and try to log in again, I cannot. There's no rhyme or reasons to this. I have no idea what is going on.
Posted by: Patty 17 Nov 2008
HOTMAIL - A DISASTER
What have you done to me??? Your hotmail is a complete disaster. I can't forward, lost access to half of my contacts, each time I forward I have to search for contacts, my scroll bar is huge etc. etc. etc.. I don't know what you did but it stinks. Please give me back my old htmail. I'm giving you until next week to fix it up or else I'm moving............
Posted by: Gooseman 15 Nov 2008
Keeps looping back to Login screen
I cannot logon to my Hotmail account at all. The login back redirects back to the 'Provide account information' (account.live.com/Logincredprof.aspx) page. This happens regardless of the browser.
Posted by: NoName 14 Nov 2008
Truncating Messages and Inability to Print
Now they've decided to edit my messages. Checked my sent folder and they're truncating my messages making me look less than professional when I have to resend to clients. Can't print anymore through the regular file-print mode -- have to use their icon and the type comes up miniscule. Constant scrolling left to right and using the wheel on the mouse non-stop. This is miserable and when you contact them it's as if they've never heard of these problems before. Every update simply makes things less user-friendly.
Posted by: Betty G 14 Nov 2008
terrible update
The text does not fit my scrren,and before you telling me to change my sreen resolution,i can not because than i can not see well.
Posted by: gogo 14 Nov 2008
Microsoft breaks Hotmail - again
Hotmail is unusable in Opera. I have payed £15 a year for this service. - more fool me. Perhaps I should put my money somewhere else.
Posted by: Jon Leighton 12 Nov 2008
Hey MicroSoft - Gimme Your Lunch Money You Squirt
Dear Microsoft: I'd hate to see how you dress your kids up for school in the morning. They must be getting beaten up by every bully in town even before boarding the bus. The new Hotmail DESPERATELY needs a choice of screen background colors. White is just too damn harsh on the eyes ! Either give us some relief - or sell us some freakin' sunglasses. And don't make our "choices" a bunch of insipid washed-out color schemes. Pleasantly surprise us for a change - instead of giving us last year's Christmas tie for heaven's sake. Ask your wives to review your color schemes before foisting this crap on the public. Also - give us a SEPARATE choice of natural "real" colors for the tabs and another set for the background. Since you OBVIOUSLY don't understand the concept of color coordination - LET US DO THE MIX & MATCHING OK? And what's with that stupid scroll-bar - in the middle of the screen? Oh stop it ! By the way - I've successfully moved to Google's Gmail and Chrome browser and I'm greatly impressed. Smoother, faster, cleaner execution in all respects. Now - give me your lunch money ! Rob
Posted by: Rob 12 Nov 2008
Can't get Hotmail
I can't get hotmail on my computer any more I need Help!!!!!!
Posted by: Guadalupe 11 Nov 2008
New look Hotmail
My husband and I hate and loathe the new Hotmail. It is much more difficult to access contacts; previously, I just clicked on the contact & the email address was entered from a list at the side. Now, I have to go to a contacts list page and, if a contact has multiple email addresses, it is hit & miss whether I get the one I want first time or have to keep going to & fro between the contacts list pages and the compose page. Further, Hotmail no longer fits my screen meaning I have to keep scrolling horizontally to read incoming and check outgoing emails - a real pain which does nothing for my migraines. Microsoft must have known this would cause problems because, if you used the usual version and wanted to try the full version, a message showed saying it might not fit your screen! I hate the fact that I have to scroll through a list to get any folder starting with C or beyond - previously they were all listed neatly at the side and I could click on them at will. I have the new layout for contacts, it is so widely spaced, I now have FOUR pages of contacts rather than one. I hate the new layout for the Inbox as well, again too widely spaced. Generally, the new Hotmail is a nightmare. It is far more cumbersome and less user friendly than previous versions. And has anyone tried contacting Hotmail? They ignore you. Since last April, I had been having almost continuous problems with a small compose box when replying/forwarding - despite endless exhange of emails when they told me they were working on the problem, knew others had it too, they cared, etc NOTHING was ever resolved. I am now trying to find an alternative free email although it will be an enormous problem to change over as I am on many mailing lists using my email address as login. I have signed up for Googlemail but they haven't answered my questions either! Does anyone know if you can access them from any computer like one could Hotmail? ALso, how best to contact them for advice?
Posted by: Barbara Chamberlain 07 Nov 2008
DISSAPOINTMENT
Hotmail did a big change months ago by giving us the LIVE version of Hotmail. Which was okay, pretty similar to Office 07, But this NEW Change sucks so bad, the over advertising is quite evident. Let's hope they can change, asap Gmail, now im with u
Posted by: Mike 06 Nov 2008
Not so exciting
Though Microsoft keeps making the changes to Hotmail look and feel and the features, it still lags behind Gmail in terms of simple layout, performance. It's time Microsoft takes off paid advertising ads inside Hotmail and make the email experience more pleasant
Posted by: Suresh 06 Nov 2008
hotmail
I really liked it before,now I can't get to view emails without moving back and forth,also can I have my old email back why can't we get what we want?
Posted by: Muriel Kay 05 Nov 2008
hotmail update
Your recent update made things worse. I much preferred the original, which I had got used to using. In particular, the information does not fit on the screen so much scrolling is necessary. Also, my inbox does not reproduce previous messages which I have read but not deleted.
Posted by: George Pilcher 04 Nov 2008
slow as molasses
Gee, the minute my live.com page changed it became slow, slow, slow. This really interfers with my ability to carry out my business.
Posted by: SMC 04 Nov 2008
Terrible update!!
Hotmail butchered the look and killed the user-friendliness of its website with this absolutely horrendous update. Auto-fill for addresses? Great, but not at such high cost; pretty much every other new feature and layout on there is absurd and more difficult to use. And now we have to stare at advertising non-stop at the top of the screen - there's no choice to scroll that darn thing off the visual field. I'm taking a wild guess here that this is no coincidence. Money doesn't stink, it just looks really, really bad. Goodbye hotmail, hello Gmail. Enough's enough.
Posted by: yael 31 Oct 2008