Q: So why would I want to use Outlook Express with Hotmail anyway?
A: Here are a couple of good reasons you might want to try using Outlook Express for email:
1. Slow internet connection (the ability to check your email the fastest way possible you don’t load ads or anything other than the basic email messages themselves).
2. Backup. It’s a good way to back important email messages that you don’t want sitting on the Hotmail server eating up part of your small 2mb user account limit.
3. It’s Free and AD Free. That’s right, no Hotmail banner ads! (5.5 might have ads... If I remember right, 6 doesn’t)
Okay, Okay, Fine, you have convinced me that I might want to try it, what now?
1. Check that you have the latest version of Internet Explorer (IE). As of this writing, that was version 6. While it’s not required to have a new version of IE to use it with Hotmail (I think 5 was the first that it worked on), it is a good idea to have the latest. There are bug fixes and security holes patched (Viruses are never fun to get).
2. Launch Outlook Express (I’m going to refer to it as OE from now on). There is normally a quick launch icon by the start menu.
3. Once it loads, if this is the first time that you have used Outlook Express you will be greeted with an “Internet Connection Wizard” screen.
If you are not greeted with the Wizard (maybe you have already setup POP3 accounts), click Tools=> Accounts (2nd from bottom) =>Add (top right corner) =>Mail to get it to come up.
4. Follow the Wizard, first, input your Display Name, this is the name that will show up on all of your emails in the “from” field. Click Next.
5. Now input the Hotmail email address that you want to be able to check with Outlook Express. Click Next.
6. The screen you see now should be automatically filled out. Incoming server should show HTTP. Click Next.
7. Enter in your Hotmail Password. This is the same password you gave Hotmail when you signed up for the service. Click Next. NOTE: You do not need to check the “Log on Using Secure Password Authentication (SPA)”
8. Click Finnish and close out of Internet Accounts (if open).
9. That’s it; you have setup your Outlook Express program to check your Hotmail email. Not to bad, eh? I’m going to show you a few more things if you want to stay.
Real simple: Click on the colored butterfly (MSN logo) with Hotmail next to it.
In the main Window, you should see the stuff below. Just put check boxes next to the folders you want to check when you click Send-Receive.
There is an easy way to achieve your Hotmail email onto your computer using Outlook Express. You just make offline folders and then move your messages from the Hotmail folders to the local (on your computer) folders.
1. Right click on the “Local Folders” item then click “New Folder”:
2. Name the folder and click “create.” Note: I like to have one folder for each of the Hotmail folders a have, but organize however. Here’s how I have it setup.
3. Now all you need to do to achieve your Hotmail email to your computer is select the messages you want achieved and drag them into the appropriate Local Folder.
4. That’s it, you might want to backup your archive every once is a while (never know when your computer might crash). Check below for more info on that.
Backing up your Email:
There a multitude of ways that you can backup your email. You can actually dig around in Windows for the data files and copy them directly (see this site (http://www.aumha.org/kbie.php) for more info than you ever wanted on OE). The one way that I have found to be the best is by using a program called Express Assist (find it at http://www.ajsystems.com/).
Well, okay, I won’t tell you that. Only, if I was Microsoft’s tech support, that’s what I would be telling you. I asked them about a year ago and they said that there was no way to backup my Hotmail Address Book. I didn’t believe them and did a little searching of my own. Guess what I can up with? Yes, you can backup your Hotmail address book to OE, and then you can export it from there and put it wherever you want! Not only can you do that, you can also have Hotmail’s address book sync with OE’s. So you could actually upload an address book from another mail program (or, heaven forbid, Yahoo! Mail ;-).
Because this is really almost just like the tutorial (how-to back a Hotmail Address book) I am going (probably done it by the time you read this) you should look for more details on the process of sync’in / backin’up here.