A guided tour of the new Outlook.com

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    Getting started

    Visit Outlook.com to sign in with an existing account (including Hotmail and Live.com addresses) or sign up for a new Outlook.com address here.


    Caption by: Ed Bott

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    Get a new Outlook.com address

    The only domain available when you sign up for a new account here is Outlook.com. Use the legacy Hotmail.com page to sign up for or manage older addresses.

    Caption by: Ed Bott

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    A new empty inbox

    You can forward email from another account to your new Inbox or link it with an existing Hotmail account.

    Caption by: Ed Bott

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    Account settings


    Click here to open the Account Settings page and link the new address to an existing account.

    Caption by: Ed Bott

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    Link accounts


    The top menu choice lets you connect multiple Hotmail/Live/Outlook accounts.

    Caption by: Ed Bott

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    Three panes


    The Outlook.com interface uses the familiar three-pane view.Ads appear in the right when you're not viewing content associated with a friend or contact.

    Caption by: Ed Bott

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    Instant Messaging


    Click the Chat icon (to the left of the Gear icon in the top right corner) to chat with an available contact. You can use any connected service, using the menu at the bottom of the chat pane.

    Caption by: Ed Bott

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    Universal address book


    The People app contains traditional contacts as well as live links to contacts in your social media circles.

    Caption by: Ed Bott

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    Connect multiple contact cards


    Outlook normally does a pretty good job of connecting contact information from different sources. You can manually link or unlink cards here.

    Caption by: Ed Bott

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    Cleanup almost-junk mail

    Newsletters, advertisements, and other time-sensitive messages can be easily managed by clicking Scheduled cleanup. The result is a stored rule, although the interface doesn't use that term.

    Caption by: Ed Bott

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    Automatic unsubscribe


    Clicking this link at the bottom of a newsletter lets you unsubscribe from (and block) further mailings.

    Caption by: Ed Bott

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    Threaded conversations

    This simplified view of long mail threads lets you expans a single message as needed.

    Caption by: Ed Bott

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    Did you forget the attachment?

    Gmail users are already familiar with this feature. If you type a phrase that suggests you included an attachment but forgot the file, you'll see this warning after you click Send.

    Caption by: Ed Bott

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Eventually, Outlook.com will replace Hotmail. For now, though, Microsoft is releasing its new email service (previously code-named NewMail) as a preview that's open to the public. Here's what's inside.

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Getting started

Visit Outlook.com to sign in with an existing account (including Hotmail and Live.com addresses) or sign up for a new Outlook.com address here.


Caption by: Ed Bott

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