What's the difference between Windows Mail, Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Hotmail and MSN Hotmail?
Summary: Microsoft has created a lot of confusion with how it names its mail products. Add the transition from MSN to Windows Live branding and it gets worse.
What's the difference between Windows Mail, Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Hotmail and MSN Hotmail? I keep getting them confused. And aren't some of them the same thing?
•
You're confused? You and the rest of the world.
And no, with another case brilliant naming, all four of those things are all quite different.
I wish Microsoft would have learned from the mess that resulted from all the different names for something called messenger or the two unrelated email programs with the word Outlook in their name, but no. Here we are. Again.
•
Windows Mail is a mail program that's included with Windows Vista. It replaces Outlook Express which came with previous versions of Windows, and it has a pretty similar feature set. My guess (and it's only a guess) is that it really is Outlook Express but with another name and a few tweaks for Vista. I know of no way to get Windows Mail other than by installing Vista.
Windows Live Mail is another, different, mail program. This one is still in Beta at this writing. Windows Live Mail confuses me for several reasons: it's also a replacement for Outlook Express, it's slightly more full featured than Windows Mail, and it's a free download that also works on Windows XP. Basically it does more than Windows Mail, above, so why does Windows Mail exist at all? I'm certainly at a loss to explain it. Anyway, as I said it is the replacement for Outlook Express. In fact, so much so that you can no longer even find an official download of Outlook Express (which was in the Internet Explorer download), but you can most certainly download Windows Live Mail.
Windows Live Hotmail is unrelated to anything I've talked about so far. Windows Live Hotmail is Microsoft's free web-based email service. Visit http://mail.live.com and what you're really visiting is Windows Live Hotmail. It's designed to be accessed via the web, meaning no program is used or needed, and you can access it from any machine on the internet using just a web browser. And I'd be remiss if I didn't point out my concerns about relying on free email services.
MSN Hotmail is nothing more, or less, than the previous version of Windows Live Hotmail. The confusion exists because the transition from MSN Hotmail to Windows Live Hotmail was done slowly over time. That means that for a while both were available at the same time. The upgrade from MSN Hotmail to Windows Live Hotmail appears to be mandatory (there's no going back), and at this writing I believe it's complete.
•
Those are the names. Unfortunately there are more issues beyond the naming that add to the confusion:
-
for a period, Windows Live Hotmail users could switch back to MSN Hotmail. This is no longer available.
-
Windows Live Mail (program) will allow you to download your Windows Live Hotmail (web mail). Windows Mail does not.
-
The premium (for pay) version of Windows Live Hotmail apparently has additional capabilities that the free version does not, including POP3/SMTP access, which would allow it to be downloaded into any mail program including Windows Mail.
-
Windows Live Messenger is a whole 'nother source of confusion.
It's frustrating. I know naming products is difficult, I've been there. But to purposely end up with such a confusing mess of product names ... well, it's really unfortunate and leads to a lot of confusion.
Related:
-
Ask Leo! - How do Outlook and Outlook Express relate?
-
Ask Leo! - How do I download my Windows Live Hotmail to my machine?
Article C3242 - December 19, 2007
I am using Windows Live Mail, problem is that when I receive any emails with images in them the images are coming in as an attachment and not in the body of the email. Is there anyway to change this? I want them in the body of the email and not as an attachment.
Posted by: Frederick Mew at February 27, 2009 11:53 PMThanks
I'm using Windows Mail which came pre installed with Vist Home. Recently I started to "lose2 barches of emails from mt inbox even though they had not been accessed. How do I recover them? My ISP says they were "delivered" and have been deleted from the ISP server
Regarding email attachment problems i experienced similar problems with attachments not being able to be opened ( i removed IE8 from my system to cure the problem!)
Regards
Posted by: tom brown at June 1, 2009 3:58 AMI'v been a fan of Windows for years, 3.1 days, and while it seems like Microsoft has somewhat of a 'memory problem' when it comes to program cleanliness and organization, there's still nothing that can compare. Thanks for the helpful outline, though - it helps a lot to be able to find a source that eliminates some of the confusion!
Posted by: Christian Young at July 19, 2009 5:02 AMHello Leo,
again, like many other, would want to appreciate the fantastic web-page layout. This certainly is very simple, yet effective (to navigate to the required information one is looking for).
My Q.s here is simple, i'm using 13.3" notebook with a Intel Core 2 Solo SU3500 processor with a 2GB RAM (with feather-light weight n over 8hrs of workable batt time) and i just got started with Win Mail. Also, read updates regarding WLM. I wanted to understand, which of the before mentioned (WM, WLM) will be a lighter version of a mail client for a Solo Processor powered Notepads like mine..
Regards
Posted by: Arnob at August 12, 2009 3:35 PMArnob
i seem to have both wlm wlh gmail and ny local mail. they all go to wlh but i get loads of duplicates. what can i do please.
Posted by: suttlem at September 4, 2009 2:58 AMrgds
suttlem
The above email address has somehow been changed to hotmail windows live, so I am not receiving emails and have lost about 3 months of emails that were in my inox. How can I change the default to my address in Windows Live and delete the hotmail windows live address? Is there telephone support for Windows Live (I searched and only tech businesses numbers came up)? Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Posted by: Joan Devendorf at October 20, 2009 4:34 PMwe are all being taken for idiots with this guff from microsoft..what was wrong with oe..nice and simple to use never caused offence ...so why do these people mess up the whole thing to try and make a fast buck
Posted by: john c murray at October 21, 2009 2:54 PMI use Outlook because it's the only one that will sync with my smart phone. I do use both window mail & window live mail (thinking they were the same). I have the Outlook Connector, but not real sure if it works with wm or wlm...so I'n not real sure into which program I should enter my appointments and "to dos"?
Posted by: Diego at November 1, 2009 11:01 AMI like Outlook because I can upload multiple files at one time, plus I'm able to include a fancy signature w/picture in my signature. Is there a window mail program that has these capabilities?
You think your are confused? So is Microsoft!
After my account was recently hacked (as were about 10,000 other Hotmail accounts) I spent two hours on the phone being transferred between about 8 different Microsoft departments (including Vista, Office, Outlook, and MSN) only to finally be told that Windows Live Mail had NO telephone support and that I would have to use the online support instead.
After that, people from India kept calling me about my "Windows Mail" problems, despite telling them clearly that I had problems with "Windows LIVE Mail". (But between accent problems and bad satellite phone service much of the conversation was unintelligible.)
In the end, they lost all my Contacts, and because of version changes the contact backups on my machine were not readable by the new version.
A friend recommended gmail, but I was shocked at some of the limitations in that program.
Can anybody recommend a good--non-Microsoft--mail program?
Posted by: Nate Ocean at November 6, 2009 10:12 AMWindows Live mail has just refused to open and has lost all my contacts and emails.There is a fix on the microsft site for getting the messages back, but you have to be an experinced user to follow the instructions. They all get imported again into an imported folder. This gives you a duplication of emails folders. I so far have not worked out a way to get my contacts back.
Posted by: Gale at November 7, 2009 3:03 AM