Outlook.com

Outlook.com is a webmail service of Microsoft which is regularly available since 19 February 2013. It replaces the Windows Essentials service Hotmail. The changeover took place gradually and was completed during the year 2013.

History

1995 Hotmail was developed, a service that short time it was acquired by Microsoft. Outlook.com was presented on 31 July 2012 by Microsoft and replaced Hotmail. With Outlook.com Microsoft wants with Gmail, can keep the competitors from the house of Google. These different functions are available that were not available in this form partially before.

On February 19 Outlook.com left the test phase; the service at that time had about 60 million active users. The remaining Hotmail accounts were transferred to the beginning of May to automatically Outlook.com, which Hotmail itself has been set. However, e- mail addresses from Hotmail can still be used. The change was accompanied by a major advertising campaign.

Functions

In addition to standard features such as a search, the archiving of old mail and a spam filter, the service offers the following functions:

With Outlook.com it is possible to send e- mails from other accounts and receive. So you can connect with his Gmail account for example Outlook.com, and now receive e- mails that were sent to his Gmail address or send e-mails using the Gmail address as the sender of Outlook.com from.

With the help of Microsoft Office integration, it is possible to edit Word, Excel, OneNote and PowerPoint files directly in your inbox.

You can link different social networks like YouTube, Facebook and Flickr directly with the mailbox, where such rights are authorized by the account holder. So you can, for example, with friends from Facebook lead a chat or see current status updates.

Soon it will be possible to be able to make a video chat through Skype via the webmail provider without causing a corresponding application must be installed. A test chat via Skype is now possible.

In large attachments to be sent with a message, the user can choose whether he wants to upload them to the cloud service OneDrive from Microsoft.

Availability and change

Using an existing Microsoft account ( @ hotmail.example [email protected] ), the application to Outlook.com is possible. Optional existing email addresses [email protected] can be changed.

Outlook.com next to the call via web app also supports the POP3 protocol; for sending SMTP can be used. Addition, there is the Exchange ActiveSync protocol available, so that Outlook.com accounts can just set up as a full mailboxes Exchange server. Since September 12, 2013, the retrieval via IMAP is supported.

Criticism

Microsoft has changed its terms and conditions and reserves now, to scan the e -mails to its customers ( a project which already implements such as Google with Gmail into action ). Unlike Google, however, no personalized advertising is displayed.

The following restrictions are currently known:

• Outlook.com accounts in Outlook 2013 ( synchronization with Exchange ActiveSync ) Importing data files (PST) in Outlook.com folder is not possible.
• Copy and move emails from folder other accounts by drag and drop in Outlook.com folder is not possible.
• Copy of e- mails within the folder structure of a Outlook.com account with drag and drop not possible.
• Create additional calendars, tasks, and contact folders not possible.
• The Drafts folder is not synchronized. The designs are stored locally on the computer.
• Not compatible with Contact Groups (formerly distribution lists). Contact groups that were created online are not synchronized.