It’s no joke.
Microsoft continues a long history of confusing the heck out of us with the names they choose for their services, and then changing those names as they go along.
Outlook.com is what we once knew as Hotmail, which was also called “MSN Hotmail” and was also “Windows Live Hotmail”. That’s relatively easy, albeit confusing. But there’s more to it than that.
For the record: none of this involves losing any email. That’s something else entirely.
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Hotmail begat MSN Hotmail begat Windows Live Hotmail
The email service we typically refer to as Hotmail was originally called … Hotmail.
More correctly, it was called HoTMaiL — note the capitalization — a bizarre kind of reverse acronym mash-up referencing HTML mail. The moniker “Hotmail” is what stuck.
After purchasing Hotmail, Microsoft integrated it with their burgeoning line of on-line services, and branded them all with “MSN” – the MicroSoft Network. Thus, what we used to call “Hotmail” was technically renamed as “MSN Hotmail”. Most people kept on calling it “Hotmail”. At the same time, MSN Hotmail was integrated, or at least associated, with a number of other MSN branded services, like Instant Messenger, the MSN.com homepage, and more.
Then Microsoft decided to de-emphasize “MSN”, and replaced it with the “Windows Live” brand. Hotmail, (known as “MSN Hotmail”) was renamed “Windows Live Hotmail”. At the same time, Microsoft allowed people to create email addresses not only on hotmail.com, but live.com, msn.com, and a few other Microsoft-owned domains as well.
While the email service remained “Hotmail” in name, the domains that appeared in your browser’s address bar went through even more changes. Hotmail.com takes you to URLs based on msn.com, live.com, and others (and for a while passport.com — Microsoft’s original attempt to use your Microsoft email address as “one account for everything”).
Hotmail became MSN Hotmail which then became Windows Live Hotmail. Same service, just three different names over time.
And then things changed again.
Everything begat Outlook.com
The most recent and massive change was Microsoft’s switch to Outlook.com as a brand to completely replace Hotmail.com and any other free email services they provided.
What was once Hotmail, by any of its previous names, is now Outlook.com.
Outlook.com is the service you now use to access your hotmail.com email, or, for that matter, almost any Microsoft email address, including live.com, webtv.com, msn.com, and probably many others, not to mention outlook.com itself. New email addresses are available only as outlook.com email addresses.
Important: Outlook.com and the Outlook email program (which comes with Microsoft Office) are two different and unrelated things. One — Outlook.com — is an online email service, and the other — Microsoft Office Outlook — is an email program you install on your PC. Microsoft seems to remain committed to giving things exceptionally confusing names.
Missing Email?
If you’re missing email, there’s something else going on. None of the name changes above should result in any lost email, period. It’s just a name (and user interface) change.
Unfortunately, I do hear of missing Outlook.com email from time to time, not necessarily in conjunction with a name change. Here’s what I’ve seen as a cause:
- Temporary failures: You may not get a message at all, but check in again in, say, 24 hours. Your email may magically have reappeared.
- Silent account hacks: There are account compromises where the hacker doesn’t change your password, so you can still log in, but they do wreak havoc on your account. Change your password — and everything else that might be used to recover your password — immediately.
- Traditional account hack: You indicated you had to reset your password to regain access to your account. This feels very much like a situation where a hacker has gotten into your account, changed your password, and deleted your email.
It might make sense to visit the Outlook.com support forums to see if others are experiencing the same problems, or to post your own experience with the hope of getting some help.
Ultimately, however, I do have to fall back on my standard position regarding free email accounts: if your email disappears, I believe it’s extremely unlikely you’ll ever get it back.
I hope you had it backed up somewhere.
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As Leo said, this sounds like your account may have been hacked. If you even suspect your account has been hacked, tit would be prudent to follow the instructions in this article.
Email hacked? 7 things you need to do now!
What is causing drop down menu’s to open when I am typing a reply to email’s etc. The iritating thing is when the delete drops down and my complete message is lost. It happens also if I am using microsoft word. There is no set pattern, it just happens. Of course will writing this note, nothing is happening.
@Jerry: I would suspect that you have a problem with your keyboard — perhaps the Alt (or some other) key sticking. If possible, try a different keyboard. If the problem persists, you have some software (virus??) that’s causing you grief. Nonetheless, eliminate the hardware possibility first. Good luck.
I have had all kinds of problems with my email account also for the past week or two I couldn’t sign in to my msn or Hotmail every thing was out of sync. I called 1-800-386-5550 msn customer service & couldn’t get past all the prompts they have, I tried their on line ass. & got a tech. that wanted $38.00 to work on my problem. All bad very bad.It will be a big problem for me to change especially where i’m a paying customer for my email account, but I’m trying to get away from these email accounts & use another companies.
It seems like that new account hack is very common with MSN and Yahoo mail. Unfortunately as these attacks are a bit more common we might see them snowball more and more and render the major freemails useless eventually. Pay a little bit for an account where you can solve your problem by phone if necessary.
Interesting, but they are not necessarily the same. I have a hotmail account and a msn account. They are separate mail accounts and I have to log on to each to get my mail.
It sounds more like the writer hasn’t signed in to his/her account for a long period thus having the account suspended and everything deleted.
Leo, Just to complete the picture, can you also comment on Windows messenger and Windows Live Messenger? I have seen a number of computers which are running both (not realising that Windows messenger was already starting automatically).
Keep up the good work.
09-Aug-2010
Moral of the story??? Very big IS bad !! Giants do what they feel like doing. (Most products out of Microsoft are poor copies of things previously offered elsewhere.) Don’t feed the beast. Support the alternatives. Use another eMail service!! (In fact, the same applies to other areas. See what big banks did to the economy? I have moved all my business to small banks.)
I had a email account, [removed]@hotmail.com I had for years, I went to reset my password, as I have forgotton it. And it’s says that my windows live I’d does not exsist!! This is my correct hotmail address!! Any ideas???
04-Jan-2011
[removed]@outlook.com is already taken, hopefully by you.
the namespaces are separate.
The comment you’re replying to is 9 years old.
“removed” was us removing the real email address he had originally entered. We do not allow people to enter real email addresses in public comments. (These days we would have replaced it with {email address removed})
Wow what a mess. I have my own Domain on a wi fi system at a park in Texas that I use outlook express on. Neither of these are accepted by MSN, or windows 7.
Leo,
I have an involved question. About a year ago I changed to a Mac and in addition to my “me” account I still have my MSN account. I have had nothing but trouble with the MSN account and want to change everything to the ME account. I purchased many apps with the msn id and fear that I am going to lose them if I switch. I also have a hotmail account. Do you have any suggestions?
I’ve used (and continue to use) Hotmail for over a decade, watching the plethora of changes over the years. Hotmail is just one of several email accounts I use, depending on the scenario.
Although I can sync up all of my email addresses to one program (POP Peeper) and get everything delivered to my desktop, whenever I go to my Hotmail email address manually, I have to click on a couple of different dropdown menus just to see my mail.
I think MS has done this as an underhanded way of getting people with free Hotmail accounts to purchase their premium service, or even just migrate over to Outlook.com.
I’ve come to expect this type of abhorrent behavior from MS, which is why I backed up my Hotmail account years ago and only use it sporadically now.
I wouldn’t call it underhanded. Many, if not most companies which offer free services do it for promotional purposes and often try to up-sell you to a premium paid-for service. They are not trying to migrate you to Outlook.com. They’ve already migrated all Hotmail, Live.com and MSN.com accounts to Outlook.com. Your Hotmail address remains the same but it is actually an Outlook.com account.
Do you know how this migration was done?
I have an outlook.com ID that belonged to someone else on hotmail.com
They seem to be separate namespaces.
They are separate name spaces. There’s been no migration of email addresses, just a migration to the new Outlook.com website to access it all.
Just to correct one error in the article – New email addresses are available only as outlook.com email addresses.
The drop-down list at account creation gives two choices – outlook.com and hotmail.com
Interesting. My belief, then, is that this may change based on criteria I can only guess at. I’ve seen it not be present, as well as (long ago) containing a much longer list of domains that included “live.com” as well as “msn.com”.
I do not know if I already have a Microsoft account and if I do, how do I get it and get the password?
Sorry, just want access to my account.
The email address you listed with this article is a Hotmail address. That is your Microsoft account and your email password is the password to your Microsoft account.
A hotmail.com account IS a Microsoft account. (As is a outlook.com, live.com, msn.com, webtv.com, and a bunch of other email addresses provided by Microsoft).
Hi Leo, I upgraded my pic, and now my @msn.com email is one I cannot work with.
Is there a way to go back to the old email format?
Thank you
Your PC should ahve no impact on what email address works for you. Try logging in at Outlook.com with your msn.com email address and password.
I’ve had my msn email address for well over 25 years. It functions normally in an Outlook shell. No problems. I believe msn email addresses are no longer issued and was told at one time, some 15 years ago, that you couldn’t even buy them.
I have had msn.com as my email for 15+ years. It works perfectly on cell phones but since December does not reflect on my apple pc. Any suggestions?
That depends entirely on exactly HOW you use it on your Apple machine. Website? Mail application? Which one? How’s it configured to access the account? Any error messages?
Locked out of my hotmail e-mail account…2 weeks…tried everything from filling out recovery forms to virtual agents to on-line Live chats…all to no avail…..PLESE HELP!!!!!
Please carefully follow the account recovery or lost password steps as offered by Microsoft. If the recovery process doesn’t work for you — maybe you don’t have the recovery email or phone — MAKE SURE to follow the instructions CAREFULLY and COMPLETELY. If the recovery process can’t be made to work, and there is no customer service (common with free services), then I know of no way to recover the account. If that’s your situation I’m very sorry.
Regardless of whether you recover the account or not, I would encourage you to review the steps outlined in this article to avoid it ever happening again: https://askleo.com/a-one-step-way-to-lose-your-account-forever/
I was initially very confused as I was a Hotmail user and than they started to shift every thing to outlook, now its a little confusing but still i think this one is a lot better than what Hotmail used to be. If you guys are looking for more info on outlook then please check this article: {Link removed}
This was interesting. What IC is that Outlook.com is the biggest problem when they cane along.
On PC, Hotmail served me well for few years before and I required a decent working email address business wise.
I changed to gmail.com and no problem at all, this seemed to detach itself. The less I go into my PC email files … the better. Those old files serve no purpose other than stacking emails that you have to delete, plus its ugly to look at. So much easier to delete old junk and keep files clean Apples branches. Did this make sense, to you?
My friend has an msn.com account, I cannot reply to his msn.com mail! Would you suggest he get a gmail account to manage & simplify his life? Or is it the Apple products software which has ironed out the problems for users?