Ask Leo!

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

Home » EMail » EMail Providers » MSN Hotmail

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.

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.

Related:

Article 9311 | Posted October 22, 2005

Recent Comments

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".

Posted by: LL Ellison at June 10, 2007 02:15 PM

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

Posted by: Martha Cerpa at June 19, 2007 02:41 AM

you can use a free hotmail account with outlook 2003 + easily with a simple download
all you do it go to 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

Posted by: craig snelling at July 17, 2007 05:33 PM

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

Posted by: Kennie at September 8, 2007 01:11 AM

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!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by: alex at December 28, 2007 07:46 AM

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.

Posted by: john at January 18, 2008 01:57 PM

You spend all that money on M$ Office 2007 and you can't even add your 'free' Hotmail account to M.$ Office Outlook Express.!

Posted by: WhiteVanMan at March 21, 2008 11:56 PM

How do you get (Windows Live Mail) it to look like how you have it set up in Outlook Express.

Posted by: Lime Barker at April 30, 2008 10:05 AM

I can not get outlook express

Posted by: paul bickert at August 24, 2008 10:08 AM

Post a comment on "Can I use Outlook Express or Outlook to access my Hotmail account?":






(Email Address will not be published.)

Remember Me?

By popular demand...
my tip jar
Cuppa Joe
Buy Leo a Latte!

(you may use HTML tags for style)

New!

RSS feed Subscribe to the RSS Feed specifically for comments on this article.

Before commenting, please...

Please wait. Your comment is being processed ...


Ask Your Question:


ask-leo.com
Web

Stay Informed

Weekly Newsletter

Archives

By Category
By Date

Advertisers

Advertise on Ask Leo!

««   »»

Question? - Ask Leo!
Who is Leo?
Link to Leo!

Terms, Conditions & Privacy