Outlook.com is out! Now ask the Outlook.com team your questions!

[Ryoken]

I'd like to know the [ or if there is ] POP3/IMAP/Exchange servers we can access, so we can manually set up Outlook.com with any mail clients we want.

I'm glad that it works seamlessly in iOS, but on my Nexus 7, I don't want to have to download a new app just to get my mail from there.

[NCRader]

Well done and I'm enjoying the interface. How can I merge two Outlook.com accounts? I didn't see the option for aliases the first time through, so I set up the second account that I needed. I'd like to delete one account and turn the other into alias. I don't want the 270 days for the deleted account to clear the system.

First I want to say I LOVE the new interface and though we cannot call the design "METRO" (which I think as a sidenote, is a mistake for MS not to pursue), I think it is great and is only going to grow - everything else looks dated compared to MS new designs - So glad to see Microsoft leading the way again.

Now, praise aside, there has been one major issue plaguing many early adopters (especially those loyal to many MS services like myself). Please see THIS THREAD. There is a solution that worked for my scenario (created new outlook.com with address I wanted to migrate old live to, but did nothing with it) - this solution is on page 5 of the string posted by sss_ms. The solution is cumbersome and scary, but did work. Microsoft needs to step up and figure this issue out AND make it very clear that you can "rename" old live address, before even more create separate accounts or alias that create 30 or 270 day waiting periods to solve the problem.

Thanks for the incredible work. I hope to see the team follow up a great product with some major transition assistance for early adopters.

[jwil1]

IMAP. IMAP IMAP IMAP.

Also, why can't I transfer my free 25GB SkyDrive capacity to a new Outlook.com address?

I am truly loving Outlook.com btw. I am just waiting for SkyDrive and Calendar to go Metro, then I'm switching from Gmail.

[petrolly]

hi there Outlook.com team. I have a important bug to report, one that keeps me from using Outlook.com in conjunction with Outlook 2010 and 2013.

While using my Live.com/hotmail account, any reply sent from Outlook 2010 or 2013 is threaded inside Outlook client, of course, but is NOT threaded on Outlook.com (the sent mail is only present in the Sent folder, not in the Inbox thread) (this bug was happening on Hotmail.com also). This is true while using the Outlook Connector plugin. This is a major pain and means that I've about given up using Outlook on the desktop. I have to use Outlook.com for my personal mail, but Outlook client for my freelance business.

What's ironic is that Gmail threading syncs perfectly while using Outlook 2010 and Gmail.com together. (not so much with Outlook 2013)

Please get Outlook.com to recognize that mail sent from Outlook client mail is part of the same thread! Thanks!

[Decebalvs Rex]

Announcements and guides aswell as warnings might help a lot of people migrating.In those guides the Outlook team should provide information regarding : Windows Phone reconfiguring.The difference between Outlook and older email clients/sites.The pluses and minuses aswell as options while migrating.Lots of people were confused when they started to migrate.

[Matthew_Thepc]

OH, and I was gonna ask...

Any chance we could see it so that the login page works like this:

I log in on Outlook.com with my email as "matthewthepc" and my password "blahblah" -> Check if blahblah is the password for matthewthepc@outlook.com -> if not, THEN tell user to enter their email in someone@example.com form (since it's assuming that they have a live or Hotmail email account)

like so if I have an outlook.com email I don't need to always enter the @outlook.com part? you don't even need to tell anyone about it - just have it so that the people who discover it discover it ^.^

[JoPe72]

I really like the new interface but I have some issues:

I have signed up for a couple of addresses over the years and I am wondering, will it in the future be possible to move the old addresses from a mailbox to an alias in Another to consolidate?

I have an issue with an old Hotmail adress regarding to region which means I cannot move my gamertag to it since the is a regional issue (it cannot be seen in the management interface but support will see it but says that they cannot do anything about it.) Will it be possible to change region in the accounts in the future?

It would be nice to have the possibility to create macros for easily manage email which could be with shortcut keys.

Keep up the good work

/Johan

[McDave]

Here is my biggest issue/transition...I very much liked "archive" on Gmail...is there a similar feature on Outlook.com? I havent found it yet/want it!

You can always create a folder and move mail you want archived into it, even could call it archive.

My question is will you be bringing support for using the full browser experiance to tablet devices?

Reply to JoPe72 changing region will never be possible after an account has purchased content in a region. It's to do with their licensing agreements. Remember getting an email from a bloke (quite high up) in the Microsoft Xbox team and even he could not change his own.

[Matthew_Thepc]

ehehe, another thing, will you ever raise the alias limit? and what about making it so when we delete aliases we can make another in the same year?

[nMIK-3]

I like to know what is going on with the Contacts pre-set fields.

For many years one of the biggest request for Microsoft Contacts (that is now present and shared over the Cloud to Windows Phone, Office Outlook, and outlook.com) is the ability to have multiple fields of any kind.

Today even after the HUGE change across all Microsoft products including major changes in Windows Live Contacts too as it completely re-branded to People, is still suffering the same problem!!

Stuck with pre-set fields such as Mobile 1, Mobile 2, Home 1, Home 2.

I have 500+ contacts transferred from Symbian, to Google Contacts with no problem. Many of my contacts have 2X Mobile numbers, one person has 4 Mobile numbers.

The reason is that these people are traveling around the world and have multiple SIM cards one local number for every country they interact with.

I have a contact with 4 Mobile numbers as the following example.

Mobile: +30XXXXXXXXXX

Mobile +44XXXXXXXXXX

Mobile: +1XXXXXXXXXX

Mobile: +81XXXXXXXXX

The same applies for every other fields. I have contacts with 3X Home Emails. 3X Home phones ect. And I am talking about A LOT OF PEOPLE in my contact list that is similar to the above example.

Not only People still does not support contacts with the same fields and everyone else DOES including Google Contacts and Apple Contacts, but if you make the mistake to transfer your contacts to Microsoft People all entries with those fields will get messed up and lost in transaction!! A complete disaster if you are talking about 500+ Contacts database.

Because of that many of us cannot switch to Windows Phone, of use your People/Contacts solution as our main one.

Can you please forward this major request and FINALLY SOLVE IT?? It is really sad for me to see this MAJOR problem to still be present after all the major and amazing changes you guys have done.

Also this complain is one very requested feature that people are complaining about of your official Windows Phone UserVoice website.

http://windowsphone.uservoice.com/forums/101801-feature-suggestions/suggestions/1549715-allow-ability-to-assign-multiple-mobile-numbers-to

[jandler]

Would it be possible to make access to the mail, people, calendar and skydrive tile a little bit more obvious? Right now, you need to hover the outlook icon on top for the arrow to appear.

Will there be a feature to merge hotmail/live/outlook account? Not simply link them but merge them in a way that in the end, there will be a main and aliases.

[]SK[]

Can we change the number of unread messages next to folders so they are in brackets?

Before:

Inbox 51

After:

Inbox (51)

Just want to say too that I love minimalistic approach!

[simonallison]

hi outlook team, i do like the minimalist look, but the font i dont like much at all, too squarish, i tried a few aliases too which they said they are already taken! And had some timeout issues when trying to create them. When will i be able to? And im sure one of them is unique, but yes overall its getting better didnt like the old interface much so glad its gone!

[Chaos at Dawn]

Just a little thing but when in the email tab can it just be called mail instead of outlook? Every other tab is self-explanatory i.e. calendar, people; then there is Outlook. Wouldn?t it make sense to have a Mail tab and maybe use Outlook as an overall view for the day or an 'Outlook of the day', like Hotmail used to have where it will show today?s calendar, the latest emails and social updates?

Can you let us know when the calendar and skydrive will be updated and if the calendar will fix the issue with birthdays showing up on the wrong days or spread over two days.

Anyway I like the update and messenger integration is done really well, much better than the mail app in windows. Thanks!

[Calum Veteran]

Why is the Mail app in Windows 8 not branded as Outlook or Outlook.com? I realise that the Mail app supports Gmail among others, but so does Outlook.com. The People app also supports Google, yet it is branded as People on the web, too.

I'm aware that Outlook is still included in Office, and thus confusion could occur if the Windows 8 Mail app was named Outlook, but the Windows 8 app could have been named Outlook MX, like the OneNote MX WinRT app (or something else; the branding being there is what's important). The inconsistency in branding irritates me.

Other than the above complaint, I have been highly impressed with Outlook.com, and I find it to be the best email service I have ever used, above Gmail. I adore the layout for composing messages, and the animation that occurs while the message is being sent ensures the user experience is highly enjoyable, as do the other animations.

Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions and listen to what we have to say! :)

[yankee_vb]

1. I did not know that I could have changed my address@live.com to address@outlook.com. Instead of that, I created a new address@outlook.com. However, on my "old" address@live.com, I have been granted free 25 GB SkyDrive storage. Is there a way to unify these two accounts so that I could continue using 25 GB free storage on my new address@outlook.com profile?

2. How do I move old archived Gmail messages into the new Outlook.com? If I establish a POP3 connection, it only works for new incoming messages.

Thanks a million!

[petrolly]

Some feedback regarding Categories and their various views, Quick Views and message list view.

How these are named is very confusing. Explaining how filters work, how filters map to the various features and filters that use them, and how to add them, to my mom has been impossible.

Since the team is determined not to label Quick View and message list View as "Category Views" to clear all this up, I would suggest the following:

Under the message list View drop down, have the last option be "Manage Categories." That way, it's implied that this view deals with categories, and helps people get to this setting in context. I can't tell you how much time my mom and I spent trying to figure out how to manage this list! Also, the settings gear icon needs to appear upon mouse over of Quick View areas. Again, tons of time wasted trying to figure out how to get to Manage Categories in context.

If you want proof as to how confusing this is to even a techie, check out Leo Laporte failing miserably trying to figure this out in Windows Weekly with Paul Therrott! He's nice about it, but it's clear that he has no idea. Jump to about 59 or 1hr minute mark and watch for a few minutes.

http://twit.tv/show/windows-weekly/272

In "Manage Categories" the naming and labelling is a mess. Why is the "filter" column named that? No where else in Outlook.com is the message list view referred to as a "filter." How does someone know this maps to the message list view? This is dev-speak, not user-speak. Call it whatever you rename the message list "view" to. "Category View" maybe, while pulling out "All" and "Unread" to be persistent above the message list? If you rename it to Category View, then Quick View should probably be renamed Category Search since this is a global search.

Also, there needs to be a "Show in:" preface to the columns, "Quick View" and "Filter" so that users understand what this screen governs.

[Calum Veteran]

SK[' timestamp=1344291603' post='595066943]

Can we change the number of unread messages next to folders so they are in brackets?

Before:

Inbox 51

After:

Inbox (51)

Just want to say too that I love minimalistic approach!

How about if there was a shaded (light grey) box around the number, a bit like how Facebook shows new Messages in the sidebar on the left of the homepage? I dislike the idea of brackets there, as it isn't good design in my opinion. Having said that, I don't like how the numbers are currently shown, without anything around them. I was thinking my idea of a shaded box would look more elegant while still maintaining the simplicity that exists.

[Ryan Hoffman]

Are you guys going to take away my account: donotreply@outlook.com?

:D

[Baboo.com.br]

Oi Galileo, tudo bem? Quem deu a "maravilhosa" id?ia de logar automaticamente no Messenger assim que uma janela do Outlook.com ? aberta? O meu Live Messenger mostra que eu estou logado em 5 places quando na verdade eu estou com 5 janelas do Outlook.com abertas! Quando vcs v?o adicionar uma op??o para evitar que o Messenger fa?a login autom?tico no Outlook.com? Podemos fazer uma iniciativa dessas no F?rum do BABOO?

(Galileu is Brazilian so he understands my question about Messenger automatic login in Outlook.com: if you open 5 Outlook.com windows, Live Messenger shows I'm in 5 places!)

[aniv]

Why doesn't Outlook.com have an option to import a PST file when Gmail does? Yes I know about the Outlook connector but its so slow that I might as well send them individually via USPS ( I have 80 down 10 up so its not my connection). Apart from that I love the design and intend to use the service as my primary email web client.

[Matt Hewitt]

I really want the ability to customize my contacts photos. Some of my facebook friends have photos that aren't pictures of them, they're pictures of dogs, cartoons, ect. Please let me associate a custom photo for my contacts.

[DaveGreen93]

How long until we can use the Outlook email accounts to sign into Windows 8?

[RiverRaid]

Hi, I like the new Outlook but it would be much more convenient and organized by moving the options Send, Save draft, Spell check, etc. to the right hand window on top of the Subject Field

[SiLeNtDeAtH]

Linking Hotmail/Outlook accounts current appears to be broken. When attempting to link accounts, this message is received:

"There's a temporary problem with the service. Please try again. If you continue to get this message, try again later."

Any idea when this will be fixed?