No longer possible to get @msn.com email
 

I tried to find the link through google for signing up for @msn.com email address but the links no longer work.

Hello,

Try setting up an MSN e-mail address by going here:

https://signup.live.com/signup.aspx?...&lc=1033&lic=1


I did find the EMD thread that discusses the issue here:

http://www.emaildiscussions.com/showthread.php?t=64306

and I can confirm the link in the EMD thread no longer works

David

Does not work. Entering @msn.com email displays the following text:

One cannot open new msn.com accounts anymore.

Yeah, it sucks you can't sign up a new one anymore. It was a nice 3 letter domain email address.

We need to remember that these companies "give away" e-mail addresses because it is part of their business plan.

The addresses are like promotional pens; if they don't have an active advertising message on them, no need to hand them out.

That's why you can't get RocketMail addresses anymore from Yahoo, why AOL stopped Tunome and why Microsoft stopped MSN. Those brands have been removed from the internet, so it's just silly to keep promoting them.

You want Outlook or Live or even Hotmail? Still active brands, still available.

As we say here, the only way for you to really own an e-mail address is to own the domain that hosts it. Microsoft still offers free Domain e-mail.

But asking marketers to keep old brands available just because we like them, well, that's really not a reasonable ask. At least they don't force us to change already established addresses.

This doesn't make any sense. It would be a valid point if msn.com wasn't an active brand as you say. The issue I think people have is that it is a very active brand, still forms a very important part of MS's online presence and certainly has not been "removed from the internet" as you put it. Hit the sign out link on your outlook.com and see where MS themselves choose for you to be taken.

In fact, let's look at the current state of affairs with all these services:

msn.com > Service active > e-mail signup discontinued?
live.com > Service discontinued (removed/renamed) from September 2012 > e-mail signup active
hotmail.com > Service discontinued (renamed) since May 2013 > e-mail signup active
outlook.com > Service & e-mail signup active

Windows Live, on the other hand, has all but been removed from the internet (not an active brand), however we're still able to sign up for live.com addresses, so why not msn.com ones? By this logic, even hotmail.com shouldn't be an option as it's "not an active brand". Surely allowing people to sign up for msn.com addresses would serve more of a marketing purpose than still allowing live.com addresses - as you say, why would you market a service that no longer exists. I would imagine the cost of keeping the msn.com option is minute (after all it's the same service underneath), and the benefits of having a few extra people still banding the msn.com brand about on the internet far outweigh these costs.

Half the problem with msn.com e-mail addresses is/was in part due to their obscurity in later life (ie. slow, quiet death). Had they been part of the mainstream sign up process like live.com, hotmail.com or outlook.com addresses, I'm sure MS would have seen sense as to not get rid of them so suddenly. For years you've had to google (or if you're really loyal, bing) in order to find a working link to sign up as doing it directly through MS was practically impossible.

As others have mentioned, they were a handy add-on to MS's product line and killing it off will probably do more harm than good (can't really see what good it does do in fact)

If it really is gone forever, a warning would have been nice, like we got with messenger. I recently got married and my wife is looking for a new e-mail address with her married name. She tried following "the link" but it didn't work, hence ending up here as she'd really rather get another msn.com account. Hopefully someone out there will still be able to figure out a way... won't hold my breath though

MSN was a home/news page from the beginning. I think it was tied to MSNBC, which is long gone but pundits still use the name instead of NBCnews.

Live/Hotmail were just login pages for email/live accounts, so they can easily be redirected to Outlook were the same account works. My only gripe is I can get live.ca but not outlook.ca aliases.

My memory could be off, but I remember the MSN email accounts as being associated with a dial-up product offered in the 90's.

Oh no, really? Is there any official information by Microsoft for this? And how do you now add aliases to your existing @msn.com addresses? And what about @passport.com limited accounts? I have been trying to find the signup page for these, but can't find it either. The community forum people there don't even read your posts, but answer predefined set up stereotype answer, post these as reply on every question in a thread and point you with liks to pages where there is no support at all, but just a login or a registration field. Such a big service should have a human support, and moreover not change its names every few years.

MSN as dialup ISP?

Yup. Started as an AOL competitor bundled into Windows 95.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSN

Started in 1995. Rebranded away in 2005, nine years ago.

Not really "every few years."

@passport.com ; that sounds great. Is that one still in use?


I am surprised they have downgraded their own Live so rapidly, but I guess if you sign up now they will let you keep your email address as it is, even once new signups are discontinued. It's a pity because, while Hotmail sounds a bit childish as a domain, Live with either .com or your country's ccTLD makes a lot of sense and is short and sweet to remember (although I guess we can say the same about Outlook.com)

I don't believe that Microsoft ever issued e-mail addresses at Passport.com. It was intended to be a unified sign in across multiple sites, including outside Microsoft, but it didn't fly.

Passport.com now links to a Bing search page on passports, with the US Passport office on top, at least in the USA.

While it does take a credit card to sign up and then you have call an operator to cancel the $19 transaction, the method in the video appears to still work.

It signs you up for dialup MSN access, which might still be around. Who knew?

I don't mind the "hotmail" name. If it is childish then it appropriately reflects the actual product (Outlook.com).