Hotmail and Outlook: Making the Connection

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Windows Live Hotmail email is a web-based mail service from Microsoft that uses the HTTP protocol instead of POP3 like most other online mail services. This gives it some real advantages when it comes to working with Outlook.

With an HTTP connection, Outlook and Hotmail can share information. In practical terms, this means that the way you organize your mail in Hotmail folders automatically gets duplicated in Outlook. It also means that any changes you make to these folders and the messages in them automatically get synchronized when Outlook next connects. And it goes the other way too. When you make changes to your Hotmail folders in Outlook, or do something with a Hotmail message in Outlook, those changes get sent over to

For example, if you create a new Hotmail folder on the server (using the normal Hotmail web interface), that new folder will appear in Outlook the next time Outlook connects to the Hotmail server. Similarly, if you do something to a Hotmail folder or a message in a Hotmail folder using Outlook, that change gets synchronized to the Hotmail server the next time Outlook connects.

Unfortunately, the free version of Hotmail cannot connect to Outlook (or any similar program), so we need to have a Hotmail Plus account to get this done. It's not free, but at only $19.95/yr Hotmail Plus isn't terribly expensive. Shall we get started?

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Here are the steps to follow if you need to get a new Hotmail account:

1. Go to the Microsoft Online Services sign up page (opens a new window)


2. click Windows Live Hotmail Plus in the E-Mail section of the window.


3. Review the plan features, then click Get it now and follow the instructions that appear.


4. When done signing up, close that window.

Your account is ready to use. Skip ahead to Hotmail Outlook Setup.

Here are the steps to follow if you are going to upgrade an existing Hotmail account:

1. Log in to Hotmail on the Web.


2. At the top of any Hotmail page, click Options to open the Options page.


3. On the left side of the Options page, click Upgrade to open the Upgrade Options page


4. On the Upgrade Options page, click Windows Live Upgrade Opportunities.


5. Review the possible plans. You need at lest the Hotmail Plus plan to connect to Outlook.


6. click the Get it now button for the plan you want, and follow the instructions that appear.

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The last thing you need to do is set up the Outlook side of things. The procedure for setting up Outlook 2003 is a little different from the one for setting up Outlook 2007, but I've got you covered.

The following link takes you to a new window with detailed procedures for the Outlook side of Hotmail Outlook Configuration

Close that window when you are done configuring and testing the Hotmail Outook connection to return here.