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.

Published: July 31, 2012 -- 17:24 GMT (10:24 PDT)
Caption by: Ed Bott
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.

Published: July 31, 2012 -- 17:24 GMT (10:24 PDT)
Caption by: Ed Bott
A new empty inbox
You can forward email from another account to your new Inbox or link it with an existing Hotmail account.

Published: July 31, 2012 -- 17:24 GMT (10:24 PDT)
Caption by: Ed Bott
Account settings

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

Published: July 31, 2012 -- 17:24 GMT (10:24 PDT)
Caption by: Ed Bott
Link accounts

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

Published: July 31, 2012 -- 17:24 GMT (10:24 PDT)
Caption by: Ed Bott
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.

Published: July 31, 2012 -- 17:24 GMT (10:24 PDT)
Caption by: Ed Bott
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.

Published: July 31, 2012 -- 17:24 GMT (10:24 PDT)
Caption by: Ed Bott
Universal address book

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

Published: July 31, 2012 -- 17:24 GMT (10:24 PDT)
Caption by: Ed Bott
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.

Published: July 31, 2012 -- 17:24 GMT (10:24 PDT)
Caption by: Ed Bott
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.

Published: July 31, 2012 -- 17:24 GMT (10:24 PDT)
Caption by: Ed Bott
Automatic unsubscribe

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

Published: July 31, 2012 -- 17:24 GMT (10:24 PDT)
Caption by: Ed Bott
Threaded conversations
This simplified view of long mail threads lets you expans a single message as needed.

Published: July 31, 2012 -- 17:24 GMT (10:24 PDT)
Caption by: Ed Bott
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.

Published: July 31, 2012 -- 17:24 GMT (10:24 PDT)
Caption by: Ed Bott

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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A guided tour of the new Outlook.com

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