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Can I use Outlook Express or Outlook to access my Hotmail account?

Update

It’s now possible to use any desktop email program, including both Outlook and Outlook Express, to access Windows Live Hotmail using POP3/SMTP support.

Please read: What are Windows Live Hotmail’s POP3 and SMTP settings? for the latest informaion.

Can I use Microsoft Outlook 2003 to read and send mail using my
Hotmail e-mail account? If I can, how do I set it up?

Using Outlook Express with Hotmail was very, very handy. Notice I said
“was”. Those days are over.

Outlook, however, appears to still work.

For now.

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Microsoft is phasing out support for free Hotmail accounts in Outlook
Express. In fact, they have a Knowledgebase article that explains the scenario:
You receive an error message when you
use Outlook Express to access your Hotmail account
. The bottom line is in
that article: “However, eventually Hotmail will no longer support DAV for all
free Hotmail accounts.” DAV is the mechanism that Outlook Express uses to
connect to Hotmail.

“However, eventually Hotmail will no longer support
[Outlook Express] for all free Hotmail accounts.”

They do, of course, let you know that you can continue to access your
Hotmail account by upgrading to a paid MSN subscription. (You can do that
here.)

I believe that Outlook (a part of Microsoft Office), falls into the same
bucket. If you can access your Hotmail account with Outlook, I
wouldn’t expect it to last. Unless, of course, you upgrade to a paid MSN
subscription.

Give it a try. In Outlook, hit the Tools menu,
Email Accounts…, Add a new e-mail account.
Select the HTTP account type and then fill in your Hotmail
account information. That will set up a new set of folders into which your
Hotmail mail will be delivered.

If it works … consider your self lucky.

For now.

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48 comments on “Can I use Outlook Express or Outlook to access my Hotmail account?”

  1. I can still get hotmail through outlook express free and the message sent from oe stays on the server even though the ‘kep copy of sent message on server box’ is not checked?

    Reply
  2. Well i tried setting up a new hotmail address and it would not work with outlook express. Must be because the old one was created before the rule changed that it still works

    Reply
  3. I have Firewall in my office, but I am facing problem during login to Hotmail. can u please help me for this. I think I have to open hotmail port on our firewall. so please tell me which is that port no. for example 1863 for MSN messenger. so please help me as fast as possible.

    Reply
  4. how can i accses my e-mail throu Mozilla Thunderbird? it keeps asking me for the server name, but i cant find out what to put, i keep geting a time out.

    Reply
  5. mah addy sundenly stopped workin. dis ment i cud nt sign into the normal msn on my computer so it easresd its self from my computer. .i need 2 check my email. but carnt because i carnt sign into msn. if i try to sign into any email websites 2 check mah mail den it simply says that my password iz incorrect. .plz help as i need 2 read my email urgently.

    Reply
  6. i tried to use MS Outlook(2002) with an existing @hotmail.com account and it dosen’t work! i’m almost sure i configured it properly..but for some reason it dosen’t send or receive mails…as for u kelly i don’t know if it(ur mail a/c) got deleted on its own due to inactivity…but u can still try by clicking the ‘forgot your password?’ link and see if u can access the a/c ever again

    Reply
  7. hotmail no longer allows email access via outlook express for free email accounts .
    I`m from Iran
    Please answer to me , that who solved this problem , Thanks

    Reply
  8. I have used/synched my hotmail with my ms outlook for a long long time. Just recently it stopped working and I get errors when it try’s to synch. I have played with it for weeks now trying to get it to work agian. I give up and I am seeking help.

    I do remember a, while back, that this service would need to be paid for by any new new members, but it also said if you currenlty use this you will not have to pay ‘some sort of grand father clause’

    Please help me get my outlook and hotmail to start working together again!

    Reply
  9. Google’s gmail is free to access via POP mail because they attached a little advertisement to all incoming email. If Hotmail did that, they could still be free to access via Outlook Express.

    Reply
  10. Based on this blog I went from free to purchased hotmail and still get the same problem. What now? please help.

    Reply
  11. —–BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE—–
    Hash: SHA1

    You should have access to some form of customer support with a paid account.
    Documentation with the paid account should be available for configuring Hotmail
    access.

    Thanks,

    Leo
    —–BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE—–
    Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (MingW32)

    iD8DBQFGOAKiCMEe9B/8oqERAtRxAKCL9lUoB/OUZBGASyWPgiBphJEF3gCePBIG
    Sq/3E0mjavCK9r9jaf5Uzzw=
    =9lQM
    —–END PGP SIGNATURE—–

    Reply
  12. I wanted to let you know that after reading your articles on adding hotmail to outlook express, that you stated you cannot do it for free or consider yourself lucky…

    You can do it for free! But there is a catch from what I learned. If you have, let’s say, Windows XP Service Pack 1, you can have it…. It works with XP home, XP Pro, Windows Server 2000 and Windows Server 2003. I had no problem at all and doing it for other people’s PC’s.

    But there is a catch! If you upgrade to Service Pack 2 on any of them… Then yeah, You cannot do it for free.

    So if you want “free” outlook express hotmail, then your pc is more volunerable to attacks.

    Reply
  13. —–BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE—–
    Hash: SHA1

    If you’re paying for Hotmail you should have access to some form of customer
    support from Hotmail that should be able to help you.

    Leo
    —–BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE—–
    Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (MingW32)

    iD8DBQFGShpgCMEe9B/8oqERAkTXAJ4/uZm8WbussOb0lF7SU+p2ZkmXZgCfUzbZ
    wUkRlwrXFn/igL1pIt1TOhM=
    =HKwX
    —–END PGP SIGNATURE—–

    Reply
  14. I had been trying to get Hotmail to sync with Outlook 2003, HTTP. It would not read my name/password/etc. I emailed the techs and this is their response. I did what they suggested and my Hotmail came through immediately. I have been paying the yearly fee for about 4 years now and it is worth the pay to me for their services. Their response: “the problem you have described could be due to a lot of reasons. As per our experience, it occurs if any of the following conditions are true:

    – The client computer that you use to try to log on is running Microsoft Internet Explorer version 7.0.
    – The HTTP server is using digest authentication.

    To resolve this, please download and install the following file available from the Microsoft Download Center. You can get this for free by visiting:

    http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=1F9D33FF-7BFE-4336-9E65-972ED21324C4&displaylang=en“.

    Reply
  15. I would like to buy something from craigslist and became difficult becose appear outlook Express and read an error for some reason can you givme the answer to this type of error or how can I get things from craigslit thanks Martha

    Reply
  16. you can use a free hotmail account with outlook 2003 + easily with a simple download
    all you do it go to http://www.hotmail.com and click on signup for a new account then when the next page comes up click on learn more about the free account and you scroll down that page until you see outlook and you download the outlook connector once you have installed that you set up your account as normal and it will work straight away even with a free account which i did

    Reply
  17. My Outlook Express stopped working with my hotmail account. I sent MSN an email asking why after using OE for my hotmail for years has it stopped working. After following their recomendation, my OE works fine with my hotmail account. Here is their reply…The problem you have described occurs if the computer that you use to log on has installed Windows Internet Explorer version 7.0. To resolve this, please download and install the following file available from the Microsoft Download Center. You can get this for free by visiting:

    http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=1F9D33FF-7BFE-4336-9E65-972ED21324C4&displaylang=en

    Reply
  18. there is a way if u have outlook (not express)and it’s above 2000 then your in luck you can download The outlook connector from microsoft just type in goole download outlook connector and thats it install it when you go into outlook just type in your hotmail,gmail etc…… password and your done plus its FREE!!!!!!!!!!

    Reply
  19. Well they get greedy like many other email providers. It’s a way of trapping somebody in paying for a service which they have given free previously. If you have an AOL/AIM account you can still set those up with OE. This type of greed makes most people’s guilt regarding pirate software vansih.

    Reply
  20. My DSL ia now ATT which is my primary email server using Office 2000. I would like to add my msn email account into Office 2000. What must I do? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

    Reply
  21. You can still use outlook express this way to check hotmail, setup a “new ” account in OE, when it asks for method – select pop server and put pop3.live.com and smtp.live.com, check off requires authentication and change the ports to 587 outgoing and 995 for incoming smtp, check off requires ssl. It will then check any hotmail account and dump the mail in your regualr inbox folder.

    Reply

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