Watch a video about how to use popular features in Outlook.com.
Outlook.com is a modern cloud email service from Microsoft. Here are answers to some common questions about the upgrade.
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Your email, contacts, SkyDrive files, calendar items and settings are all the same as they were.
If some of your email seems to be missing, a feature called conversation threading may be turned on. Conversation threading groups together all email with the same subject line. You only see the most recent email in your inbox or other folders. Click on the email, and all the email in that thread will appear in the preview pane.
To see the preview pane, click the
Options icon
. Under
Reading pane, click
Right or
bottom.
To turn off conversation threading
Click the
Options icon
, then click
More mail settings.
Under Reading email, click Group by conversation and pre-load messages.
Select Show messages individually, then click Save.
To return to your inbox, click the Outlook logo.
To see your contacts (now called People), calendar, or SkyDrive:
Click the down arrow next to the Outlook logo.
Click People.
All the features you used in Hotmail are in Outlook.com. Here's where to find them:
| To | | Do this |
|---|
See the full Menu bar | | Click any email. |
Compose a new email | | Click New. |
Add a recipient to an email | | Click To, or click the box just below it. |
Reply all or forward a message | | Click the down arrow next to Reply. |
Make "reply all" your default reply | | Click the Options icon , then click More mail settings. Under Reading email, click Make "Reply-all" my default response. Select Yes, then click Save. To return to your inbox, click the Outlook logo.
|
Print an email | | On the main Menu bar click the … (three dots) symbol. |
Add a new folder | | Right-click Folders, then click Add a new folder. |
Get a list of keyboard shortcuts | | Press the Shift + ? (question mark) keys. |
Personalize your inbox and see more mail settings | | Click the Options icon . |
Sign out of your Microsoft account | | Click your name, then click Sign out. You can also add more security information to your account, which will help verify your account if security problems arise. |
All Hotmail
customers have been upgraded to Outlook.com. As part of this transition, we've removed the option to switch back to Hotmail.
For the best experience, you should update your browser to the latest version. Also, make sure Microsoft Silverlight is installed and running for browsers that support it.
Outlook.com supports these browsers or higher versions:
Outlook.com is easy to set up on your phone or mobile device. For more info, go here.
The upgrade to Outlook.com doesn't change your Microsoft account name, so all apps that are configured to your Hotmail account will continue to send and receive messages.
If you rename your Microsoft account, your Microsoft account name changes, so you'll need to reset all your apps. You'll also need to reset your Windows Phone—for help with this, go here.
You’ll automatically be upgraded to be an Ad-free Outlook.com customer when you upgrade to Outlook.com. Your account info and billing remain unchanged.
Yes. The settings for your POP3/SMTP client are the same settings you used for accessing Hotmail. If you need a settings refresher, this page should help.
