How To Use Your Free Hotmail Account With A Desktop Email Client

When a friend asked me to help him out with setting up his Hotmail account with a desktop email client such as Thunderbird or Outlook, I thought I was in for a bit of a rough ride; the last time I tried such a thing it didn’t turn out so well (this was a number of years ago now).

However, I was rather surprised at the simplicity of the whole operation – if anybody has tried setting up a free Hotmail account in the past and couldn’t do so due to Microsoft’s restrictions or the necessary third party software, you need worry no longer!

I tested this on Thunderbird for Windows, Mac and Linux and Mail for Mac OS X, and things went smoothly both times…

1. The first thing you need to do is begin to create an account, entering your name and email address.

2. When you need to enter the POP and SMTP settings, select your incoming server as POP. Call it whatever you like, Hotmail for example.

3. When asked for your incoming mail server, you should enter pop3.live.com. This works with older Hotmail accounts as well as the newer ‘@live.com’ addresses.

4. When configuring your outgoing server, you need to enter smtp.live.com as the outgoing mail server. You should also enter your email address and password so that your client can connect to the server.

5. When all your information is entered correctly, create the account and all of your emails should start flooding into your inbox!

If you’re not sure which client to use, I recommend Thunderbird from Mozilla. If you’re a Windows user, you could also download ‘Windows Live Mail’ from Microsoft which will also allow you to access your Hotmail account from your desktop.

Related Pages:

1. Thunderbird 3 RC1 Review (Desktop Email Client)
2. Windows Live Essentials Review: Mail
3. Facebook For Microsoft Silverlight Beta Client Released
4. Windows Essentials: How To Backup – Part 1
5. Windows Live Essentials Review: Writer (Blogging Client)

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