Hotmail was one of the first web email service that started back in 1996. After the success of Hotmail, Yahoo also launched its email services in 1997. Ever since, billions of users now use emails everyday. Do you have your desired username for your email address? If not, here is your chance to get one.
Hotmail today launched a completely new web based email client for its email services called Outlook.com. Its basically a new look to your hotmail/live accounts.
But the good thing about Outlook.com is that now you can rename your existing email (eg. abcd123@hotmail.com to abcd@outlook.com) to new @Outlook.com email address.
Check out the step by step instruction on how to upgrade your hotmail account to Outlook.com account and get your desired username. Don't worry, Microsoft will keep your older emails into a separate folder and you can still receive emails to that older email address without any problem.
- Login to your hotmail account and under the options you will see a menu that says "Upgrade to Outlook.com". Click on that
- Once you do that, you will be redirected to the new look at outlook.com. You will see that all your emails will appear as is in your inbox.
- Now in the new look, click on the gear icon (Options) menu and click on "Additional mail settings".
- You will see a link that says "Rename your email address". Click on that. It will ask you to login once again to confirm.
- Once you login, you will be given an option to choose your new username with @outlook.com. Enter your desired username and if its available, you will be redirected to Outlook.com.
- Here you will be given an option to move all your existing emails into a new folder named with your existing email address. (e.g. abcd123@hotmail.com). Once you complete these, you are all set.
Enjoy your new desired username with your new @outlook.com email. Some of the cool features of Outlook.com are as follows
- Outlook.com design is clean and refreshing with Metro like visual language. It looks like a Metro app inside your browser.
- Outlook.com can display photos and Video attachments as a slideshow overlaying the rest of the page.
- If the photos are from Flickr or some other online photo sharing service, Outlook.com will be able to fetch those photos and show it right there without opening a new window.
- If the email has a package tracking information from Fedex, UPS or USPS, it will be able to display the delivery information within the window.
- You can also open, edit and share Microsoft Office documents within the browser
- Outlook.com gives each user 7GB of SkyDrive storage. Every file you send in an email gets stored on SkyDrive, and appears in the mail as a preview, with a link to the full version, addressing the problem of attachment size limits.
- Best part of Outlook is that it can filter out those "Social Updates", "Newsletters", email subscriptions and put them into its own category so that you can address them all at once without cluttering your inbox.
- You can start chating with your facebook, Skype or windows messenger friends from within your inbox.
- And yes, you can also make Skype video calls from within your inbox.
What do you think? Did you like the new Outlook.com?