The new Hotmail is now available to everyone!

Why do we Chinese can't use lots of new functions such as 50MB attachemet, silverlight-based attachement uploading, attachments from skydrive, etc.?

And when can I save my attachements to skydrive? Thanks

I love the new UI.  While I am not a power user, I always appreciate the attention Microsoft gives to ambience.  The only question I have is why the Office Docs tab does not link me to Skydrive instead of my C-drive.  You already have an attachment tab.  Shouldn't the Office Docs tab allow me to send docs already stored on Skydrive?  The 15 second video seems to indicate this.

Here is a wish list for you.  How about color categorizes, sub-folders, push e-mail on outlook, custom flags, more themes, S/SMIME, multiple aliases and custom domains....

@Paul2010 - Thanks for the list, these are certainly areas we will be looking into in the future. Some however are already done:

- Custom domains can be setup at http://domains.live.com.

- Push e-mail to outlook, I'm presuming you tried the Outlook connector (part of Windows Live Essentials), are specifically looking for push (versus pull).

I actually like the default sign in for Messenger. What is hindering Messenger in Hotmail is fragmentation.

I used to be a hardcore Gmail/Google fan.  Not any more!  I now REALLY like hotmail and have almost completely switched (except for picasa which I still feel is superior to photo gallery). I tell all those who are close how happy I've been with the seamless integration with Outlook and other products. The new hotmail is really slick. Only one thing I might like is the Labeling functionality instead of folders.

One more thing.. When will LinkedIn be a Windows Live "Service" that can feed status updates etc?  How about Zune?  I would really like to see these in addition to my facebook service

1)Why the Outlook rules are not getting synchronised with hotmail Inbox rules?

2)There is a long space above mail list.The whole space is just for the word "Inbox" and "search box" at the right.

3)In Navigation Pane on the left,Bring Quick views above the folders list.If a user has more than 10 folders there will ve scroll bar to scroll down to access Quick View which is annoying.Even the messenger online status of friends.

Ben Vincent  Let me clarify….custom sub-domains and multiple aliases.  Hotmail outlook connector is lacking . My kids Google Apps outlook sync works better than the current Hotmail outlook connector (default sync setting for hotmail outlook connector is 30 mins: old school).  It would be nice to have my email "pushed" (not on a scheduled pull) like my work exchange account.    Anyways, I'm glad to see the improvements.

Glad to see Hotmail making some big strides in taking webmail further for the masses. The new update certainly beats Yahoo Mail, but still got some way to go before catching up with Gmail. Keep up the good work.

@Paul2010 - Thanks for clarifying, that's correct we don't currently support these. I will share your feedback with my colleges in the appropriate areas.

RE Outlook, you can change the default from 30 minutes, you have to edit your "send and receive groups". That's not exactly what you want but you can make it more frequent than 30 mins.

Generally, I am very pleased with the enhancements made in Hotmail.  I just wish I could use Outlook instead of Live Mail to compose Photo Mail messages and that email client apps like Outlook/LiveMail had the "From Bing" search options.

I'm loving the new Hotmail features.  The only thing I've noticed is that the dynamic header theme doesn't update when I click Inbox on the left column .  I must click Hotmail > Inbox at the top for it to update.  Also, the green colours don't match on the "morning Prairie" header.  The other "Prairie" headers match fine.

Great job! My only request would be the ability to make sub-folders under both the inbox as well as the sent items folder.

Why is there no full SSL support? I thought this was part of the new version? I will not use Hotmail until my entire session is fully supported by SSL (HTTPS). I understand the login page is secure, but once  you get in the inbox it is not secure. I will continue to use Google Apps until this is resolved.

UI improvement:  I would like the option to compose new mail in a separate "pop out" window.  Thank you.

I was under the impression that the new Hotmail would include ActiveSync support, but cannot find it anywhere, is that no longer the case?

Hi Mike, Ben,

When will Exchange Active Sync be enabled for all hotmail users. I cannot wait to get Hotmail on my phone, that is the last thing I am waiting on so that I can completely switch to Windows Live.

Thanks,

Pranay

@pranayjn @Ds2600 - We share in your desire to get Exchange Active Sync available for everyone, we'll have more news to share on this soon.

@Adrian - Unfortunately (or fortunately) this is a known issue, we're working to resolve this in a future release.

I'm too a Gmail convert :) In fact, I have about 4 Gmail accounts being pop3'd in to my hotmail account now. My wish list:

1) Send mail. once the mail is sent, just send me back to the inbox automatically

2) Back in the day, when hotmail or WLM weren't so great ;), I used a non @live or @hotmail account as my live ID and put tons of stuff on to the skydrive (that's where I fell in love with Live first).

Now, I do have live account. But I always have to switch to the old account to get to my skydrive. It isn't a big deal of course since the accounts are combined. But, when I come back to hotmail, i need to switch back.

Rather than combining, I'd like my accounts to be merged. So that, when I log in to one, I have everything else on other accounts available to me.

I use Hotmail in Germany, got updated at the very beginning (approx. two month ago?) and everything ran smooth from the first day: So nothing to really complain about! Good job! Nevertheless I have some issues:

1. If I compose an email and want to attach something I only can chose "attachments". I can NOT attach fotos via the "fotos" button and can NOT create an skydrive album in this way.

2. If I chose "attachements" I can only select ONE single file at the time. Strg or shift keys don't work.

Attachment sizes:

3. If I select a file in hotmail, that is > 10 mb, it starts to upload but never comes to an end (not because of my connection). no error message.

4. In windows Live Mail wave 4 beta I simply sais for attachments > 10 mb: "the message is too large..."

5. It seems as if the office integration is not completed, is it? If I receive an email with a .docx file I can't open it in the webbrowser but only can download.

Questions:

- How (if) can I create a photo email usin Hotmail (not WLM, there it works)?

- How can I select multiple attachments in Hotmail (not WLM, there it works)

- Why can I only send < 10 mb?? That is nothing! If you can't fix this: why do Hotmail and WLM not ask me weather I want to upload the files to skydrive and than send the link?

- When is the office integration complete, or is it just a problem with my account?

Thanks very much for reply and keep up - don't rest on your laurels ;)

great job ... but I can not wait more for Exchange ActiveSync ... How many days must still wait??????

Bring on the ActiveSync!! And even better if it would work for Outlook too so that we didn't need the Outlook Connector add-on.

Problems with Mac OS + Safari:

Wave4 reads well and and is fluent/fast. However after composing an email and hitting send, wave4 makes the browser crash... Any advise?

I share the same queastion with Caoke that “Why do we Chinese can't use lots of new functions such as 50MB attachemet, silverlight-based attachement uploading, attachments from skydrive, etc.?” In addition, when uploding attachemnt I cannot see the process bar which can learn the percentage of the file or picture you uploaded！

I have a problem when I try to remove some invalid address from the "Safe senders and domains" list (without the @ for examples or a single label domain). After select them I push the button "Remove from list" and they disappear, but the next time I view the list they are still in the list.

I think this is a bug..

Thank you

I was wondering why the messenger on the site doesn't work for me. it does not sign me in or anything

@Mike Schackwitz I've alerady posted this on one of the other blogs but thought I'd post again.

I'd like the option to switch off Automatic Updates of Contact information.  With the new Wave 4 there is no option to do that.  I understand that it may be a useful feature, but there is a risk that information gets overwritten that you don't want to be overwriiten.  If profile information is updated, and you have opted out of 'Automatic Updates' then maybe the updated information can just be shown under the field (rather than automatically replacing the data).

PLEASE give the option of not automatically updating contact info!!!!!

I still don't understand the 'Iive Profile' side of things - as the number of 'friends' doesn't match the number of friends I have listed on messenger (yet, I was believed it was supposed to be the same info).  I would like to manage friends on my profile and be able to remove  them - but once added or invitations are accepted there is no way to remove them (apart from delete them off messenger - which I still want them kept on).

Also, does the messenger part really have to be on the hotmail screen?! I know you can minimise it, but would be good to be able to delete it off.

Like a lot of people have been saying, the only thing left now is activesync, so can't wait to hear that's been updated. Also will that mean we can configure outlook to use RPC over https instead of using the hotmail connector?

Why do you want a display a message after sending a mail? the page that says X people are already in our contact list. i have to say that page could be removed.

Good work People. Congrats Hotmail team!

All these bells and whistles mean nothing to me until one very basic interaction flaw is fixed: When I view and delete a message, I want to return to the Inbox view, not bring up whatever message happens to be next in the Inbox. Every other email client I use either does it this way as standard or has an option to choose it. If Hotmail has this option, where is it? And if not, why not?

I love the security enhancements, but unfortunately the single use code isn't working for me.  I've updated my live ID with my cell number, but I simply don't receive the text alerts.  I'm on AT&T.  Nice thought, just would like to get it working!

@Hurricane Andrew, thanks for the feedback on Single-use code.  Could you please add your mobile number at http://sms.live.com and verify phone?  If you have already done this and if Single-use code isn't working, we would like to debug.

Reposting my thoughts to this Blog post since it seems to have superseded the previous post/thread (windowsteamblog.com/.../hotmail-rollout-picks-up-steam.aspx).

@Mike Schackwitz - As a bystander and long-time user of Hotmail, I’m intrigued by the positive and negative feedback (as well as the 'rants') on the Wave 4 launch. To this end, could I suggest the following to help alleviate some of the issues that seem to have arisen in the wake of the launch...

Have a dedicated FAQ page somewhere that is regularly updated covering-off resolutions to common issues (some of which have been alluded to in the comments to this Blog post).

This could/should be backed-up by an e-mail from ‘The Hotmail Team’ to all Hotmail users migrated to Wave 4 (and maybe posted to this Blog too) advising them of the location of this FAQ so that everyone is aware of its existence.

@Everyone Else - In terms of ActiveSync, whilst I would love to have this feature in-place ‘yesterday’, pragmatically it makes far more sense for it to be released once the current Wave 4 teething problems have been resolved rather than going head-long in and creating a potentially unmanageable spike in support issues.

Hope this is of help.

--Yogesh

As everyone else was saying, I would like Exchange ActiveSync to work with Outlook. Windows Live Mail beta is ok, but it's not great. I would rather see Exchange put to good use here rather than DeltaSync. As for Windows Live Mail beta, I don't like that I can't integrate Facebook contact information with my local contacts or that I can't remove certain Facebook contacts (such as my "Likes"... I really don't need "a good cup of tea" to be in my contacts in my Windows Live Mail client...) . I have people on Facebook that share their information (e-mail, phone numbers, etc.) with me, but I'd like that to be made useful.

@Ramesh  That seems to have worked.  I had added my mobile number in my profile information, not in the device information at the sms.live.com url.  If this is the way a user is supposed to do it, then I suggest a link or at least clearer instructions directing them to the right place.  This is a great feature though...any thoughts to using Yubikey as a form of two-factor authentication?

i don't like the new hotmail at all.   when i used to print my emails they would say from: my email to: whoever i was sending an email to and  date sent:  where did the date go?  in my line of work i need to have proof of when i send my emails.  can u help?

@Mike Schackwitz: Thx for your reply, waiting patiently now ;)

I think it would be nice if I could attach files from my skydrive to my email messages!

I think it would be nice, if I could give other people (who do not have an hotmail or skydrive account) a temporary username and password I have made myself, so they could log on in and see my vacation pictures on my skydrive. That would be niice!

I think it would be nice, if I could forward more than one message at time!

I think it would be nice, if the entire windows live and microsoft account had full-session SSL with minimum 2048 RSA/MD5 encryption with SECURE tls renegotiation, which Opera says is very good, and the fewest sites actually have. - Be the first Microsoft!

I don't think a lot of people know how to navigate to the skydrive from the pages by holding the mouse over the text "windows live" which is just a product name as many thinks.

I think there should me some arrows that should be VERY noticeable and also think the text in the upper part of windows live should be bigger and bold

I think it should be much easier in uploading files to skydrive. Like dropbox do it. www.dropbox.com make an account and try, just make sure it's also possible to upload entire folders directly without having to make them yourself in the webbrowser and then upload all from inside the folder to the drive.

Also I think, you should make an application as Dropbox have done, you can install on your pc (it makes an folder on the very desktop, where you can use it as a normal Document-folder) then you can put your files in that folder and then it automatically syncs to your web skydrive. It also works in offline, so the files just are synced the next time you connects to the internet.

How about helping all the people on the help forum who have not been getting any help regarding viewing and sending e-mails from Hotmail.  It seems as if there are a lot of people with this problem, myself included

I like very much the new design of Hotmail, and new stuff's. I hope, the Microsoft Team, keep making updates to Hotmail and another services, like Google. The new Hotmail look's more professional and serious. Thanks to Microsoft Team for the Wave 4 and i'm waiting the Wave 5 ;)

Right now, the Contacts Birthdays calendar doesn't show connection-based (FaceBook, MySpace, etc.) birthdays. I find it confusing that they appear on the live home page but not on the calendar.

It would be great to have connection-based calendars such that the FaceBook calendar would have events and birthdays of FaceBook-based contacts, the MySpace calendar would have the same, and so forth.

Well I don't have anything to rant about, and like many others I'm waiting patiently until ActiveSync rolls out before I switch my email over wholly from Gmail.

However, I would just like to say I'm suitably impressed that the Microsoft teams are taking time out of their day and listening to what the user community has to say - kudos to you all.

Hi guys, thanks for the Hotmail updates! I've been a Hotmail user since '97 (before Microsoft owned it) so I've seen my fair share of iterations.  Here's a few points of feedback:

1) The junk email/deleted items confusion.  I get MANY junk emails daily, primarily from Turkish sources (why Turkish, I have no idea...).  I routinely delete these emails straight away, and they go to trash.  Great.  Now, sometimes I'll try marking them as junk, which for some reason, then puts them in the "Junk" folder where I then have to go in and delete them out of there.  Why can't Hotmail, when I mark an email as junk, have an option to immediately delete that email?  And what exactly happens when I mark a particular email as junk?  It seems like the emails just get moved around, and I continue to keep receiving these same types of messages (often times exactly the same message even!) even after marking it as junk previously.  It doesn't seem to work!

2) Incoming mail filter functionality (or lack thereof) in Hotmail.  Regarding the Turkish junk mail I receive above, I have set up numerous "rules" within Hotmail for how to filter these incoming messages (i.e. send them directly to the trash).  Most of these rules are based on subject line content.  I have about 10 or so rules set up.  Not ONE of them has worked to filter out these junk emails.  Why?

3) Can you add an option to immediately whitelist and/or block a sender directly into the menu options of the individual emails rather than me having to go into Options first?  That would be super handy.  Something like "Whitelist this sender/domain" and "Block this sender/domain" would be awesome.

4) The ability to log into multiple Hotmail (Live) accounts at the same time would be great.  Kind of a lame limitation at this point.  I hate having to sign off/sign back in when using my various accounts.

5) The Hotmail/Messenger contact list fiasco.  I really, really dislike how my email contacts are tied to the Messenger service and vice versa.  I wish you guys would make this an option rather than a default.  As far as I'm concerned my email contacts are separate from my Messenger contacts, and the shouldn't be mixed or connected UNLESS I want them to be.  This all gets rather messy when one goes to prune their Hotmail contact list.  I know the big thing is "social" and "connected" and "intertwined" but for something as important as peoples' contacts, this should be a user set option.

Thanks for listening!  I'd appreciate your responses or questions if you need follow-up.

I've been quite critical of Hotmail in the past, and the latest iteration resolves most, if not all of the issues that I think have plagued the reputation of the service in the past and have kept me from using Hotmail as my full-time e-mail account.

My favorite improvements would have to be (in no particular order):

1. The removal of tag lines on the bottom of outgoing e-mail messages sent using the Hotmail web interface.

2. Improved message rules.

3. Advanced search capability that works well.

4. Automatic refreshing of the Inbox and other folders as mail comes in on the Web interface (seems to require that you be signed into Messenger on the web, but that's no problem).

5. The improvements to the user interface -- the new themes, layout, and dropping the font-size (which in my opinion was a bit too big and made the interface feel bulky) -- very appealing to the eye and easy to use.

A few things I'd like to see added/changed in future releases:

1. The ability to define custom quick views - much like what Outlook offers with Search Folders.

2. The ability to sign in to Messenger during the initial sign in process (perhaps a drop-down to choose your status or not to sign in to Messenger at all).

3. The ability to control whether or not your contacts information is automatically updated if you have added them as a friend on Windows Live (a simple checkbox in the contacts detail view would suffice).

Great job on the new release of Hotmail, I'm looking forward to Exchange ActiveSync and Full-Session SSL support! Keep up the great work!

"View Message Source"-- Oh boy, I'm sure I'll get a whole lot of use out of that feature! Just kidding. Glad to see you're taking care of the needs of the geeks. I guess "if mama ain't happy, ain't nobody gonna be happy." Anyway...

Suggestion for Conversation view (this is a follow up to a previous post of mine): In the "from" column, instead of listing the senders all in one line (only 1-1/2 of whose names are actually visible) how about listing them vertically? I realize that this would lengthen the inbox, to the inconvenience of some. It would sort of be a compromise between having the reading pane on and having it off.

Suggestion for inserting recipients in an outgoing email: I would like to only have to go through my contact list ONCE and use that occasion to chose which ones go in the "To" field and which ones in the "CC" and "BCC" fields. As it is I have to go through the list three times, once for filling each field. How about a series a check-boxes labeled "To", "CC", and "BCC" next to each contact, you know, like Hotmail had earlier in the century.

Another suggestion for inserting recipients: It would be nice to rearrange the tabs so that "Favorites" is the first one on the left, not "People". I send to these people the most because they are, after all, my favorites.

Suggestion for Contacts: please restore the feature by which I can designate which of the multiple email addresses I have for a contact is the preferred one, the one which will appear if the ">" sign next to their name is in the closed position, i.e. the email address which appears first in the contact list used for insertion in an email.

Finally, czetie has the right idea: when deleting an email while in it I, too, would like to be returned to the inbox, not the next (is it preceding or succeeding? I can never remember) message. I estimate that  my preferred order for reading the new mails, and their importance to me, would match their chronological order maybe once every 50 years.

Thanks.

@karizma23 I agree with you about the whole contacts thing...

I don't want them linked to msn or automatically updating, or not having control over them unless I choose to - so, after all these years (I've used Hotmail way before Microsoft owned it) I'm off to Gmail - It has a static contact address book not linked to anything else, and does Exchange Sync already.

I use the Deleted Items folder as an archive. Will e-mails in this folder still be permenantly deleted from time to time, like it did in the past?

If so, can't you make this an option?

Obvisouly an option would be to create an Archive folder, but then I can't use the "Delete" button on my iPhone or in Outlook to archinve my mails, which is a feature I really love.

Am I the only one using the Deleted Items folder this way?

Huge ad frame is still there.  /sadface

People keep talking about ActiveSync and Outlook.  ActiveSync is not a desktop sync protocol.  It's a Mobile Sync Protocol.  It's not the same as Exchange's HTTP live connection.  Microsoft has DeltaSync for desktop - you just have to always have Messenger running with Windows Live Mail to get mail pushed to you (Lol...  sad but true).

If Google had a Windows Mobile GMail client, I probably wouldn't even bother using Windows Live, TBQH.  I'm looking at moving to an Android phone right now, though, so I may move all my personal email and contacts to GMail once again and drop this.  I use Exchange for all my important stuff, and Android supports ActiveSync.

The Huge Ad frame needs to go.  It wastes a lot of screen real estate, especially for those of us who don't run with their browser maximized 100% of the time.  The Office and SkyDrive integration is nice, but the only Office Application I've upgraded to 2007 (before 2010 release) from 2003 is Outlook, and since OneNote is useless with the mobile service I don't use any of that at all.  I tend to put my photos on FaceBook, instead, since 99.9% of the people I know use that and don't even bother logging into something other than a thick messenger client or mobile client.

I've given up on Outlook Connector.  It's classified as useless to me.  I'm getting ready to uninstall Live Essentials.  Photo Gallery is nice.  Messenger would be nice if it didn't have this HUGE Ad frame in it, and a HUGE group with all my facebook contacts in it.  It also seems to lose connection with services like Facebook intermittently.  I don't use Movie Maker, Live Writer.  Live Sync starts up whenever I reboot my computer and I have to exit it manually - it almost feels like spyware on my computer...  Having to run Both Messenger and Live Mail concurrently to get email pushed (seriously, it's 2010 we shouldn't even have to do this) is a showstopper for me.

I don't wanna sound too pessimist.  Lots of the new features and cosmetic changes are awesome.  It's just that some of the decisions made with implementing some features are quites... dubious to me.

- Nater.

@W. J. Zeallor . Thanks for the feedback. Definitely something we're considering for the near future. Stay tuned.

@ David Dennis - Do it (or something comparable) and I'll get Hotmail Plus.

I posted this bug in the Windows Live Solution Center:

"If I open my SENT folder, select a message, and then move it to some other folder ..... the senders name (for the message that was just moved) changes to my name !!! The sender's name should NOT change when a message is moved from the SENT folder to some other folder!"

The response I received was that this behavior was by default! Why does Wave4 Hotmail's default behavior result in the sender's name being changed when a message is moved to a different folder????? How is this behavior not considered a bug??? The sender's name should NEVER be changed!!!

Correction to my previous post .... it's not the sender's name that is changed ... it is the TO name that is changed. Sorry for the confusion.

ActiveSync will be the killer feature of this latest wave. The rest of the new features are OK, but I can live without them, as I access my Hotmail almost exclusively through Outlook connector and mobile.

Bring on ActiveSync already!  These new features aren't as important as ActiveSync.

Hi Mike, how many days for Exchange ActiveSync? I need it...

Just wanted to let you know the upgrade is going great and no big issues being reported<sarcastic post>.

They reset the "Issues with the New Windows Live Hotmail" thread every Monday to assure that the previous 1000+ worth of issues reported the previous week are erased. Someone really needs to fix this because optimizing browser settings, deleting history & cookies isn't fixing simple issues like not being able to READ or WRITE email that was functional prior to the upgrade.

windowslivehelp.com/forums.aspx

.

@Mike S:

Thanks for the explanation of the difference in the way messages in the Send folder are displayed vs the way messages in all other folders are displayed.

One question:  since some customers do move messages from the Sent folder to other folders ... which then results in a possibly confusing situation were all such moved messages appear (in the folder they are moved to) with the sender's name (i.e., the account owner's name) ... then why not offer the option to have messages that are moved from the Sent folder to another folder listed (while in that other folder) with the recipient's name? This could easily be accomplished by setting an internal flag within Sent messages (that would denote the message as one being sent by the account owner) ... then the code that displays messages in folders could look for this flag in each message being displayed, and if the flag is found for a given message, the code would display the contents of the Recipient field as opposed to the content of the Sender field. Not a complex change to implement, and would improve Hotmail's usability.

Please help!   I am using a MacBook and have wasted over an hour trying to print out a 1 page document (invoice) emailed to me which opens up in Active View in the new Hotmail.   I don't want to print the email itself....I need to print the attachment!   I tried turning off Active View via Options>More Options, etc. and it still opens in Active View!   Arghhhhhh!  Help!

New hotmail is awesome. However, I don't still get why Hotmail is killing itself by not providing cross integration across multiple platforms. Not having an IMAP support in today's world is inexcusable. I got my hotmail account when I was 10 years old (23 now) and I have been using it everyday, however, over time it is becoming my alternative email account. Because Gmail is able to synch across my blackberry, iphone, and non-microsoft email clients, I have more range and more options to use it. If you provide such great service why not extend it across smartphones, and other devices. Add as many features as you want, if you don't get imap and better integrate your service for non-microsoft products you will cede control to other email services. It is kind of sad that we have to use a third-party software (izymail) to get imap support for hotmail.

@riverdeuceiswild Sounds like the invoice may be a JPEG or other graphic and we're displaying it as we would other graphics or photos. Can you try to click the Download as ZIP link or the little arrow with the line under it that's at the bottom of the invoice preview to download it to your computer and then open and print from there?

Well done, the new Hotmail looks stunning! But where is the orange theme, the one used in the preview, that one looks very nice. Thats the one I prefer.. ;-)

Two things that need some more work: 1) please add some color to the user created maps/folders or maybe it is better to give your own folders a separate section (some space) and 2) when you send a e-mail, it wont go back to your inbox (automatically, just like gmail), it wil show a useless page when you can add a contact (the one you e-mailed). I think that page is not necessary.

@ lokeshtodi:

Maybe I didn't get the point because I don't have a phone with internet connection. However, isn't the future active sync MUCH better than IMAP? It syncs your contacts, calendar...

David Dennis - on the printing thing, THANK YOU!   My doc is now printed.   Maybe I will be the only one to have an issue with that but from my perspective, that was not intuitive at all (obviously...I spent WAY too much time on it).   So another question for you, what's up with the Active View not turning off when I go to Options > More Options, etc.   Is Active View a sticky preference that remembered I opened the email the first time when Active View was enabled?   Or is there not REALLY a way for me to disable it?

@riverdeuce. Glad it worked. We're aware of both of these issues and are working on addressing them. The fact that download isn't super easy to discover is a key thing we're looking at right now.

The most important feature is ActiveSync! We want ActiveSync!!!!

We all can't wait for ActiveSync. It's coming soon. Get your tweets and status updates drafted!

1) Messages sent from my blackberry don't show up in my sent items folder. Why is this happening? When it will be fixed?

2) When deleting a conversation, only messages sent to me from other people go into the deleted items folder. I then have to go into the sent items folder and manually delete the sent items associated with that particular conversation. This is cumbersome.  

3) The ability to change my default font would be beneficial.

Looking forward to the full SSL support!

I really like the new Hotmail, enough to move back from Gmail, but I cannot do so until AcrtiveSync is ready. Is there a schedule for this? some info would be appreciated by many !

I think a import mechanism is very important - you are likely to be getting lots of people who want to move from Gmail or other providors and there are no good ways to achive this. There is a "truswitch" service which is poorly advertised, but it doesnt support custom domain names at the source or destination ends, so its usless for my google apps account, and my hotmail account which has a custom name. Im trying to "suck" all my email in using pop 3 but your limit of 50 emails per hour means this will take many weeks, literally, and then there is no way that I can see in the Hotmail interface to sort the sent mail from the recieved mail!

Also the social connections, nice idea, but it really plays havock with your contacts when you first make a link. We need an option to not merge contacts as I spend ages deleting hundreds of facebook contacts from my Hotmail list - when ActiveSync is ready and these are my iPhone contacts too, that will be even more frustrating !

One more thing, SSL. Come on people, this is a serious weakness surely you can see this?

very important issues for me, but otherwise, great work !

@David: Thanks, but is there a schedule for ActiveSync, is there a date for release? I need ActiveSync for my holidays and I would not like switching to Google... :-(

HeinrichP, Its sha-1 that you want, not md5 buddy, do some research before posting.

I wouldn't mind 2048 bit RSA as Microsoft will probably upgrade windows live in the next decade or so.

Would it be possible to allow AES for the non-default ssl encryption algorithm? Gmail allows AES for their ssl encryption.  

Also, I'm sure it would be very simple to implement a feature that shows the last 5 IP address's used to log in a users account.

If you want more technical people to even consider using hotmail as their default email address, you would implement these small features which make a huge difference.

What about multiple log-on like in Google Mail. (more account at the same time?)

I would have to say that the new hotmail email has been great so far. I love the look of the email and as well I would definately with hotmail for as long as they continue to impress me.Looking forward for the new updates in hotmail.

It is pretty nice, but I have a few suggestions:

- Allow us to remove buttons from the top bar (where New, Reply, Reply All, etc. are). I never/rarely use Reply All, Forward or Move To. That would take up less space and feel less overwhelming.

- Have a Mark As Read button (or the option to have it shown). I dislike having to do Mark As > Read, as I mark a ton of messages as read.

- For Sweep: I see you can check "Move future messages too," how about an option to also mark them as read?

- The Views options are nice, but why can this not be a drop down? It takes up way to much space I do not see why the Sort drop down cannot be to the right of the search box, and then the View/Filters option be next to that.

- Another suggestion for the View feature, what if I want to view Unread emails from my Contacts? Why can I not select multiple filters? Maybe even something to make my own filters would be pretty cool too, or allow me to save searches, that way I can quickly search what I searched for later.

As for the Junk filter, it is becoming much much better... So congratulations on that! But I was wondering, when checking to see if it is junk, do you check the language of the message? I can only speak and read English, so if I ever get anything other than an email in English, it is instantly spam. Now I know some people can speak multiple languages, so it could get complex, but if it is possible to do that, that would be great! Or at least an option on the Settings page where I could define languages of emails to accept.

Dear MS Staff,

great work, first of all. Also looking forward to EAS, though :-)

One feature request: I'd like to setup photos for my contacts in Outlook 2010, sync them to hotmail via the outlook

connector and then sync them to my mobile, once EAS becomes available.

At the moment, Outlook Connector does not sync the photos to hotmail and I believe this is because you cannot even setup photos for your contacts in hotmail itself. Every contact has to setup HIS/HER photo.

BUT: Only 5% of my contacts have a live account and only 1% actually setup their own photo! So of course I prefer if all of them setup their own photo, which should be the primary photo (and sync that back to outlook via the connector, please!).

But those contacts who have no photo setup or who don't even have a live account - I would like to have the option to manually setup a (secondary) photo for them in hotmail and/or sync this with outlook and later on with my mobile over EAS. That way, every contact may still setup their own photo to be used primarily, but if they don't I can still manually setup a photo for them. How's that?

Thanks,

Martin

@sp1der (et. al.) ActiveSync is slated for release later this summer. SSL will follow.

@David Dennis, thanks for update re: EAS late summer - but that doesn't really require that we get our tweets and status updates ready to post does it. Many of us are really holding on for this feature so that post of yours probably had many besides me thinking that the launch was imminent (as in days away). I think the whole user base would be infinitely more satisfied with clearly communicated launch dates from the MS team so we have realistic expectations for something that has been talked about in the press since back in April.

Why have I not been able to log in to Hotmail for the last few days?

@Cathy - I'm sorry you're having trouble. Can you please start a thread on our support website: windowslivehelp.com/forums.aspx. If you don't get anywhere please send me a private message through this website and I will get back to you. Ben

I like many other users love the new featureset and UI changes, and am very happy that you have implemented conversation view/threaded conversations, but one thing really bugs me about it. Can you include an option to make newer messages go down the page and have the oldest message of the conversation appear at the top, like it does in Gmail? That way, users who are accustomed to Gmail's conversation view will feel more 'at home' in Hotmail.

Thanks, and congratulations on both a superb new Hotmail and superb rollout :)

@David: what does it mean "late summer"? Is there a date?

I can’t help thinking that the way everyone’s going on about a release date for ActiveSync it’s the Second Coming of Christ, or a launch that’s greater in precedence than the iPad , iPhone 4, or even Windows 7(!)

That said, according to industry insider Paul Thurott, EAS is slated for release during late August [2010], so assuming the schedule hasn’t slipped around 3 weeks to go.

Later this summer, late August, "Get your tweets and status updates drafted!" Why can't we just get a firm date from Microsoft? Surely you have a date on the schedule for when this is going to launch, on the first clusters at least.

Fix Office Live simply by allowing users to use SkyDrive the right way.  I should be able to add attachment, select Office Live and attach any Office file right from SkyDrive.  Google seems to allow cross-browser compatibility, how about making Chrome work the same?

Mike it has been over a week ago now that you stated above, { " for instance, we no longer sign you into Messenger by default."} however a Wave 3 updated using IE8 default browser is continueing to do so!!!!!

Working as expected otherwise. The automatically signing into messenger with Windows live home page is annoying to say the least.

@Custom Computers - To stop yourself from being signed in, delete your *.live.com cookies. Unfortunately you are one of a few people who this impacts because we have disabled the creation of the cookie that auto signs you in. Sorry for the inconvenience. Ben

@various We expect ActiveSync to be available in a few weeks and SSL in mid-Fall. The reason we don’t publish exact dates is that there are always factors that could change the date. We don’t want to disappoint if we commit to a date and need to move it out. That's our policy. We're all very excited about these new features, but I didn't mean to suggest that getting your tweets and status mesages ready meant the features were coming in a matter of days. Thanks much.

look here: www.sysadmin.it/.../Default.aspx :-)

Junk mail filtering seems more aggressive than ever. I can't seem to get Hotmail to STOP filtering...I can't add anymore recipients to my safe senders list (already >500) and way to much legit mail is ending up in Junk. The only options are Standard and Exclusive...how about NONE, as there is in Outlook? (And the settings in Outlook do not seem to propogate back to Hotmail via the Outlook Connector).

P.S. +1 on ActiveSync :-)   Obviously the single most important feature add in the history of Hotmail.