Hotmail - "live" vs. not

webecedarian · 23 Jun 2007, 03:35 AM

Sorry if this is a silly question, but...

My main e-mail account has been Hotmail, which I've stuck with, despite all the others I've tried.

They've been bombarding me (like everyone else) with messages promoting their "live" version. However, early on, I'd read about someone who shifted over, and lost all his stored messages. Is that still a possibility? And if the live version doesn't appeal to me, can I switch back?

The Storm · 23 Jun 2007, 09:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by webecedarian

Sorry if this is a silly question, but...

My main e-mail account has been Hotmail, which I've stuck with, despite all the others I've tried.

They've been bombarding me (like everyone else) with messages promoting their "live" version. However, early on, I'd read about someone who shifted over, and lost all his stored messages. Is that still a possibility? And if the live version doesn't appeal to me, can I switch back?

Well I'm not sure about losing messages, but my account didn't lose any. You can switch back to the normal version. But not sure for how long, as the Live mail will no doubt become the standard before too long.

jeffpan · 23 Jun 2007, 11:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by webecedarian

Sorry if this is a silly question, but...

My main e-mail account has been Hotmail, which I've stuck with, despite all the others I've tried.

They've been bombarding me (like everyone else) with messages promoting their "live" version. However, early on, I'd read about someone who shifted over, and lost all his stored messages. Is that still a possibility? And if the live version doesn't appeal to me, can I switch back?

I once switched back my hotmail acount,not only lost all the messages,but the full address book is lost.It was about 1 year ago.I suggest you test it at first by using a unused account,after you're sure it's safe enough,then switch back your main account.

rmns2bseen · 23 Jun 2007, 01:32 PM

I've been trying Live Hotmail with my msn.com account for the past few days, and I have to admit I actually like it. I can't figure out though how to view message source in the Live interface...

I've been using the "classic" layout, for the sake of speed. I wonder if that's the problem...

xmailer · 23 Jun 2007, 11:43 PM

Having switched back and forth between the "original" hotmail and the "Live" Hotmail (both versions of the latter) numerous times during odd moments when I've had nothing better to do (and thus far having lost no messages or contacts, by way of response to the OP's question, at least as far as my own experience, although Hotmail did lose all my messages once when I had done nothing at all, long before anyone ever heard of the "Live" Hotmail), my best impression thus far is that there isn't any way to view full headers, or the message source, in the Live version of the Hotmail web interface, that it can only be done by switching back to the original version, at least for as long as that option is still available.

In fact, my impression in general is that this Live business is essentially nothing but a "glitzy" interface, with a "dumbing down" of the original Hotmail's already rather limited features, MS's assumption being that the overwhelming majority of its users haven't a clue what the message "source" is.

Personally, I remain as underwhelmed as ever with MS and Hotmail, Live, or whatever they decide to call the same basic crappy email service.

David · 23 Jun 2007, 11:49 PM

I have been using the new interface ever since it came out and would agree with xmailer's post. I at first thought the limited feature set was because I was using Firefox (on Linux) but now realise that it works the same way on Windows. I have never tried switching back as I only use the account to send messages to my daughter and POP it from Fastmail (it's an old account) I only visit the account to send about one message a month.

edit: I forget to mention that you can now change the 'from address' I don't know if you could do that before (or not)

rmns2bseen · 24 Jun 2007, 12:44 AM

Well, yes, Hotmail is very limited, but then so are Yahoo and AOL/AIM. None of those comes close to what Gmail offers by way of features, in spite of Gmail's shortcomings. Limited features have always come with the territory with Hotmail/Yahoo/AOL, in my experience anyway.

xmailer · 24 Jun 2007, 01:18 AM

As yet another Hotmail Live shortcoming, I generally prefer to show from 50 to 100 messages per page in my message listings in webmail, while the Hotmail Live interface seems to show exactly 25 messages per page, with no way to change that number. Has anyone managed to find this option hidden anywhere?

Quote:

Originally Posted by rmns2bseen

Well, yes, Hotmail is very limited, but then so are Yahoo and AOL/AIM. None of those comes close to what Gmail offers by way of features, in spite of Gmail's shortcomings. Limited features have always come with the territory with Hotmail/Yahoo/AOL, in my experience anyway.

Not just in terms of features, but Hotmail has been more than a little unreliable in terms of the failure to receive legitimate messages, which often never even appear in the Junk folder, that being my own personal experience and I gather something the service has become somewhat notorious for.

But AIM may well be the worst of the lot, as I couldn't get to any of its options at all the last time I was logged into its web interface. So I guess I'd have to say that, as bad as Hotmail is, even it looks good by comparison to AIM, at least as far as the webmail interface goes.

rmns2bseen · 24 Jun 2007, 01:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xmailer

Not just in terms of features, but Hotmail has been more than a little unreliable in terms of the failure to receive legitimate messages, which often never even appear in the Junk folder, that being my own personal experience and I gather something the service has become somewhat notorious for.

Honestly, it's been so long since I received a lot of legit mail at any Hotmail/MSN address, I've never noticed.

Another thing that irks me though is that I can't seem to find an option to view all headers, even in the "full" mode.

xmailer · 24 Jun 2007, 02:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rmns2bseen

Honestly, it's been so long since I received a lot of legit mail at any Hotmail/MSN address, I've never noticed.

I'm not even talking about "a lot" of legitimate mail. In fact, I currently only receive messages from a few legitimate sources in my Hotmail account, mainly thanks to one person who found my old Hotmail address at a forum at which I had posted it merely for its possible use in connection with the MSN Messenger, with which this person first added me as an MSN Messenger "contact", then sent me (non-spam) invitations to a couple other websites from which I now receive somewhat regular mailings. In fact, these messages have arrived okay, AFAIK, but one thing I haven't yet managed to do is set my Hotmail address as an alternate From address with my Gmail account (for limited use with these sites), as in several attempts to have Gmail verify my Hotmail address, Hotmail has invariably apparently "eaten" Gmail's verification message, with no sign of it ever appearing anywhere in my Hotmail box. I've considered trying to whitelist the address Gmail's verification messages appear to be from, but as these messages have never even reached my Hotmail Junk folder, I can't say I have much confidence that that would do any good.

theog · 24 Jun 2007, 03:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xmailer

one thing I haven't yet managed to do is set my Hotmail address as an alternate From address with my Gmail account (for limited use with these sites), as in several attempts to have Gmail verify my Hotmail address, Hotmail has invariably apparently "eaten" Gmail's verification message, with no sign of it ever appearing anywhere in my Hotmail box. I've considered trying to whitelist the address Gmail's verification messages appear to be from, but as these messages have never even reached my Hotmail Junk folder, I can't say I have much confidence that that would do any good.

Mine works great... tested the other day after reading another thread... and it is still working fine. I think then, you posted you tried it "years ago" or something.... and refused to try it again now that Microsoft is pushing everything "live" out of beta.

Answer the op: I've not lost any messages or address book listings. Like some of the others, I've switched over multiple times.

I have a gmail account, but I don't care for gmail... I'm still waiting for them to actually make the system something I can use... the way they still reject messages with attachments is terrible. Use gmail at your own risk.

xmailer · 24 Jun 2007, 04:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theog

Mine works great... tested the other day after reading another thread... and it is still working fine. I think then, you posted you tried it "years ago" or something.... and refused to try it again now that Microsoft is pushing everything "live" out of beta.

Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean. I refuse to try what? I have been "trying" hotmail, on a limited basis, and thus far I have found it unreliable and feature-poor. As observed above, there doesn't even appear to be a way to view full headers or to set the number of messages listed per page in the Hotmail Live web interface, as two examples. Exactly what, if anything, is supposed to be "better" about this new Live Mail over the "traditional" hotmail interface, do you happen to know? Whatever it is has thus far eluded me.

theog · 24 Jun 2007, 09:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xmailer

Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean. I refuse to try what? I have been "trying" hotmail, on a limited basis, and thus far I have found it unreliable and feature-poor. As observed above, there doesn't even appear to be a way to view full headers or to set the number of messages listed per page in the Hotmail Live web interface, as two examples. Exactly what, if anything, is supposed to be "better" about this new Live Mail over the "traditional" hotmail interface, do you happen to know? Whatever it is has thus far eluded me.

Fair enough.

I simply don't agree with "feature poor" in regards with gmail. Headers and such is no big deal, IMO. Getting email is a big deal and gmail performs poorly in that category.

In addition, with many of my attachments being sent to back to the sender and many of my "regular" email being sent to spam box, I can't use gmail that much.

Guess I'd simply rather use hotmail live rather than gmail. Then again, I'd rather use my everyone.net address than either one of those, so my argument is sorta mute. Yahoo, hotmail, and gmail needs to put reliable IMAP in place before I'd consider using them on a regular basis.

rmns2bseen · 24 Jun 2007, 11:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theog

I simply don't agree with "feature poor" in regards with gmail. Headers and such is no big deal, IMO. Getting email is a big deal and gmail performs poorly in that category.

Headers though can be a big deal, and it's mystifying that the user can't see them in the Hotmail Live interface. It's not that big a deal to include them, either. Wouldn't be a big deal to allow forwarding, either. Which, uh, Gmail does allow. But I'd agree with you about IMAP.

xmailer · 24 Jun 2007, 11:42 AM

Despite Hotmail having lost all my message, that being "the last straw" among a number of ongoing "dissatisfactions" which persuaded me to finally discontinue using it as my primary email service several years ago, and despite the notoriously puny mailbox size at that time, in terms of its basic features and functionality, it appears to me that Hotmail was actually a superior email service in general then to what it is now, and that the old interface is still superior in terms of fundamental functionality (as opposed to a merely fancy-looking interface)..

In fact, the only reason I've elected to leave the Live interface active for my account is for the longer "inactivity period" (120 days versus 30, as mentioned in a recent thread), as, logging into it so relatively seldom, it will be less likely to be de-activated just in case I do ever manage to find any important use for it.

23 Jun 2007, 03:35 AM	#1
webecedarian Essential Contributor Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: NYC Posts: 483	Hotmail - "live" vs. not Sorry if this is a silly question, but... My main e-mail account has been Hotmail, which I've stuck with, despite all the others I've tried. They've been bombarding me (like everyone else) with messages promoting their "live" version. However, early on, I'd read about someone who shifted over, and lost all his stored messages. Is that still a possibility? And if the live version doesn't appeal to me, can I switch back?

23 Jun 2007, 11:49 PM	#6
David Ultimate Contributor Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Canada. Posts: 10,355	I have been using the new interface ever since it came out and would agree with xmailer's post. I at first thought the limited feature set was because I was using Firefox (on Linux) but now realise that it works the same way on Windows. I have never tried switching back as I only use the account to send messages to my daughter and POP it from Fastmail (it's an old account) I only visit the account to send about one message a month. edit: I forget to mention that you can now change the 'from address' I don't know if you could do that before (or not) Last edited by David : 23 Jun 2007 at 11:57 PM.

24 Jun 2007, 11:42 AM	#15
xmailer Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: USA Posts: 5,485	Despite Hotmail having lost all my message, that being "the last straw" among a number of ongoing "dissatisfactions" which persuaded me to finally discontinue using it as my primary email service several years ago, and despite the notoriously puny mailbox size at that time, in terms of its basic features and functionality, it appears to me that Hotmail was actually a superior email service in general then to what it is now, and that the old interface is still superior in terms of fundamental functionality (as opposed to a merely fancy-looking interface).. In fact, the only reason I've elected to leave the Live interface active for my account is for the longer "inactivity period" (120 days versus 30, as mentioned in a recent thread), as, logging into it so relatively seldom, it will be less likely to be de-activated just in case I do ever manage to find any important use for it. Last edited by xmailer : 24 Jun 2007 at 11:53 AM.

23 Jun 2007, 01:32 PM	#4
rmns2bseen Master of the @ Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: USA Posts: 1,426	I've been trying Live Hotmail with my msn.com account for the past few days, and I have to admit I actually like it. I can't figure out though how to view message source in the Live interface... I've been using the "classic" layout, for the sake of speed. I wonder if that's the problem...

23 Jun 2007, 11:43 PM	#5
xmailer Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: USA Posts: 5,485	Having switched back and forth between the "original" hotmail and the "Live" Hotmail (both versions of the latter) numerous times during odd moments when I've had nothing better to do (and thus far having lost no messages or contacts, by way of response to the OP's question, at least as far as my own experience, although Hotmail did lose all my messages once when I had done nothing at all, long before anyone ever heard of the "Live" Hotmail), my best impression thus far is that there isn't any way to view full headers, or the message source, in the Live version of the Hotmail web interface, that it can only be done by switching back to the original version, at least for as long as that option is still available. In fact, my impression in general is that this Live business is essentially nothing but a "glitzy" interface, with a "dumbing down" of the original Hotmail's already rather limited features, MS's assumption being that the overwhelming majority of its users haven't a clue what the message "source" is. Personally, I remain as underwhelmed as ever with MS and Hotmail, Live, or whatever they decide to call the same basic crappy email service.

24 Jun 2007, 12:44 AM	#7
rmns2bseen Master of the @ Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: USA Posts: 1,426	Well, yes, Hotmail is very limited, but then so are Yahoo and AOL/AIM. None of those comes close to what Gmail offers by way of features, in spite of Gmail's shortcomings. Limited features have always come with the territory with Hotmail/Yahoo/AOL, in my experience anyway.