Ask the Hotmail team anything [and we'll reply via video]

[Fraud OS 11]

Works fine here on Chromium and Opera unless I'm missing something.

Which Messenger version? Which Windows version? Which browser is the default? Doesn't work for me, has never worked. :( Messenger signs in to Hotmail from IE by setting a cookie but Chrome fails. :(

[Mr. Gibs]

Which Messenger version? Which Windows version? Which browser is the default? Doesn't work for me, has never worked. :( Messenger signs in to Hotmail from IE by setting a cookie but Chrome fails. :(

Wait wait I'm confused lol. Do you mean the inbuilt web messenger in hotmail?

If you mean Windows Live Messenger, then I have no idea. I use Trillian with Chromium / Opera (switch between them from time to time lol) as my default browser and that works fine.

[RonaldT]

I think Hotmail lacks the following features / needs improvements:

1. Enable the option to send mail for aggregated email accounts via that account?s smtp server instead of Hotmail, because now email sent as if from another account will show a "From [email protected] on behalf of" header and makes some spam filters go crazy.
   
2. More frequent retrievals of new mail on other mail accounts (pop3) or at least the possibility to manually check for new mail
   
3. Enable dragging and dropping attachments in and out of a message (when composing and reading mail)
   
4. Notification (visually and maybe by sound as well) when new mail arrives like Outlook desktop notification (sender and subject), even when no browser is currently running.
   
5. New favicon that indicates the number of unread messages in the Inbox
   
6. Ability to flag messages when using mobile devices
   
7. Option to request a Read Receipt as in WLM Desktop
   
8. Rules/Sweep: Add Mark as read to the Select the action the rule applies list and/or to the Sweep menu
   
9. RSS folder for RSS feeds (I like the way it is implemented in WLM Desktop: 1 aggregated unread feeds folder, the feeds as sub-folders). Add option to read full article next to abbreviated view.
   
10. As Skydrive has now pdf viewing capability, pdf should be viewable from within Hotmail as well (like pictures Active View)
    

Hotmail calendar:

1. Double click to enter appointment instead of the need to click on Add button (works already in IE, but not in Firefox)
   
2. Show tasks below the mini-calendar on the left as a "to-do list"
   
3. Add synchronization of tasks with mobile devices
   
4. Add search
   

[Sanjay]

And ever since 2010 we've had EAS, which will allow you to do push email.

But what good is EAS without HTML support? Do you really expect people to use email without HTML in 2012? I forward my Hotmail account to a gMail account, just so I can get my emails with HTML on my webOS phone and TouchPad. Why has Microsoft chosen to use an obolete EAS with Hotmail? Seems like someone in Microsoft wants people to stop using Hotmail.

[gb8080]

HOTMAIL ALIASES: A couple of questions regarding some annoyances here.

1. I set up two aliases (nice feature). However I omitted to create a separate Inbox folder for one of them when I set it up. So all mail to alias1 goes to my Inbox, but mail to alias2 goes to a separate folder. I can't now change this. I'd like to have a separate folder for both, but it seems you can only do this when setting up and can't change it later. I think you should be able to - have I missed something?

2. The alias is useful when giving someone (e.g. a forum!) an email message without disclosing your real name. However I just discovered that when sending email from an alias, it transmits my main sign-in name (which is my real name) in the header/From field. Why can't aliases also have a different first/last name ("From").

Thanks in advance for your response (and action on this!!).

[Zain Adeel]

here are some suggestions/bugs.

1. Open Inbox (on IE9) click the advanced search button. Now click it again to close it and this happens. And if i resize the page to see if it corrects it. This happens!

screenshot1 when open inbox

screenshot2 when press advanced search

screenshot3 when press advanced search again to minimize it

screenshot4 when reduze size of window to try to fix the broken page

screenshot5 if page size reduced more the top left area disappears as it doesnt scale too well

2. Sign out button area disappears as we reduce the size of the window. Rest of the page scales well.

3. I cant show this on a screenshot but whenever i open a new email page. And enter the email address in the addressbox the page gets stuck for 3 seconds. If i wait 3 seconds and then enter the address its all fine. But i dont understand why it takes 3 seconds after the page has loaded. i am on a 2mb Connection.

Also .. i would love the ability to drag and drop files to attach. Increase attachment size a bit too. Or integrate skydrive even better with hotmail.

[Mr. Gibs]

But what good is EAS without HTML support? Do you really expect people to use email without HTML in 2012? I forward my Hotmail account to a gMail account, just so I can get my emails with HTML on my webOS phone and TouchPad. Why has Microsoft chosen to use an obolete EAS with Hotmail? Seems like someone in Microsoft wants people to stop using Hotmail.

Um I think that's a problem with webOS' implementation of EAS because I'm probably correct in saying it works fine on Android, WP7 and iOS.

[veternan]

I am a big fan of Hotmail. I have been using Hotmail since 2001. I have a question:

Do you copy from your competitors?

What a dumb question!!

If Microsoft copy from competitors, Then Why Galileo and Nic asks for our opinions and ideas!!??

Thanks Galileo and Nic, best way to achieve success by listening to users (Y)

[GalileoMS]

What about our other, more important concerns? (like the ones that keep us from using hotmail)

Like we said at the outset, we'll do our best to get to all the questions.

Folks, we're leaving this open for another 6 hours and then we're closing it up. So, last call!!!

[ZakO]

Do you guys offer or plan to offer 2 factor authentication via cellphones to help secure peoples hotmail / live accounts?

This! 2-step authentication done exactly as gmail does (or better) is needed. When, if ever, will the Hotmail team implement this?

[bdsams Veteran]

Just had a quick chat with Galileo and I will be closing this thread in about an hour. Thanks for all of the awesome contribution so far everyone and I am just as excited as all of you to see the responses from the hotmail team.

Thanks!

[veternan]

let me say I love my Live mail account; It is better than lazy loading Yahoo or Gmail. I prefer Live it loads faster and works with Windows Live mail!! But

1- Please Upgrade Spam/Junk filter, Live mail is like spam magnetic field!

2- Make Live mail UI like windows 8 live mail client UI(Metro Like); Simple, Fast loading UI, Mobile Friendly even without mobile app!...HTML5, Ajax :punk:

3- Windows/Android/Apple mobile App that can be download from user mail account's page.

4- Integrate Forefront Antivirus in mail to avoid malwares.

That's my list.

[bdsams Veteran]

And that does it folks for this round! Nic and Galileo will be gathering up the questions, finding the answers and posting up a video reply here in the near future. We will certainly let you know when the video is available and thanks for the great conversation!