When I exit Hotmail, I want to go to my homepage, Google not MSN. How can I
make this happen? I just don’t need to be bombarded with all of NBC’s
stuff.
In this excerpt from
Answercast #83, I look at why Hotmail returns users to the parent homepage
and what you can do about it.
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Hotmail’s home page
The short answer is: you can’t.
The issue is that Hotmail doesn’t allow you to configure where to go next. It simply goes to its parent site when you exit or when you log off.
The cost of free service
If you want to look at it, that’s kind of the cost of a free email service. They get to do things like that and not let you change them.
The only advice I can give you is to set your homepage so that the homepage button will take you to your Google page, or wherever it is you want – so that the first thing you do after exiting Hotmail is click on the Home button to get to your homepage.
(Transcript lightly edited for readability.)
Next from Answercast 83 – Can I retrieve my old emails I sent and received from my email provider?
If you want to avoid getting sent to MSN when you log off from your email, you can use an email program like Thunderbird.
What are Windows Live Hotmail’s POP3 and SMTP settings?
Or you can switch to GMail. They always send you to Google ;-)
I have 4 different home pages set for my laptop’s ie, so I click a different tab to go to my 4 top locations. When I want to get out of HotMail/Outlook, I just close the tab, or click on another tab if I only want to temporarily get out of my email program.
If you don’t use a shared computer and your computer is physically secure, there really is no need to log out of Hotmail.
However, even if you do log out, there is no need to look at the MSN home page. As soon as you click the link, you can close the tab or your browser, even though the home page hasn’t loaded yet.
Once you click the link, you have sent the signal to Microsoft to log you out. Anything else your browser is doing is related to showing you the home page.