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Outlook Express to finally end access to Hotmail

By Tim Conneally, BetaNews

April 23, 2008, 3:57 PM

Yesterday an e-mail was sent out from the Windows Live Mail Team announcing that Outlook Express would be dropping the legacy DAV protocol on June 30 2008, severing access to the Hotmail Inbox from Outlook Express.

Users are encouraged by the team to download Windows Live Mail as Outlook Express' free replacement. Live Mail replaces Distributed Authoring and Versioning with Microsoft's proprietary DeltaSynch protocol, which detects changes in the e-mail server, allowing the client to only download the changes, instead of all the headers in every folder as DAV does.

Microsoft's cessation of DAV support has actually been a known issue for several years, as users of Windows XP SP2 running Outlook Express have long received the error message: "Hotmail no longer allows email access via Outlook Express for free Hotmail/MSN accounts." Users of Outlook 2003 and 2007 were encouraged to download Microsoft Office Outlook Connector to connect to their Hotmail inboxes.

It now appears the best option is simply to upgrade to the new client.

Live Mail is, of course, closely tied to Microsoft's Windows Live suite of tools, allowing Live Messenger conversations directly from the inbox, and immediate jumps to Live Spaces blogs.

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By mdotwills

posted May 7, 2008 - 4:14 AM

WLM is really nice.
When mail is sent from WLM desktop (the email client), no advertising at all is placed at the bottom of the email.

Score: 0

By cooter1

posted Apr 30, 2008 - 11:42 PM

I see nothing wrong with WLM as it works just fine...

I would like to see proof of this spam text as I have been using hotmail for several years now and never had a problem with it.......

Score: 0

By nestorjw

edited Apr 25, 2008 - 1:14 PM

will this affect regular outlook or Blackberry receipt of hotmail?

Score: 0

By Program86

posted Apr 24, 2008 - 10:23 AM

What MORON uses Hotmail anyway?!?! They put spam text ads at the bottom of your email to boot.

Hotmail cant even hold a candle to GMail.

Score: 0

By cooter1

edited Apr 30, 2008 - 11:32 PM

program86

I would like to see proof of this spam text as I have been using hotmail for several years now and never had a problem with it.......

And watch who you are calling a MORON

Score: 0

By comeoffit

posted Apr 24, 2008 - 1:24 AM

Or, you could simply download Thunderbird and get hotmail, gmail, or just about any other pop mail with no trouble at all. Thanks for nothing microcrap.

Score: 0

By Hollywood__

posted Apr 24, 2008 - 12:23 AM

I thought they did this years ago.

Windows Mail is the much improved replacement. I use Outlook for business and Windows Mail for personal. I don't get any spam at all with either program.

Score: 0

By bourgeoisdude

posted Apr 24, 2008 - 10:13 AM

Yes, I have noticed Outlook and OE/Windows Mail's junk filters are getting pretty good as of late.

Bah, I'm getting a little off topic now so I'll shsh...

Score: 0

By kprovance

posted Apr 23, 2008 - 9:15 PM

Does anyone really still use Hotmail?

Score: 0

By mdotwills

posted May 7, 2008 - 4:15 AM

Windows Live here...

Score: 0

By dracodos

posted Apr 23, 2008 - 7:45 PM

Well i guess thats the final nail in Outlook Express's coffin. Goodbye you useless program!

Score: 0

By Esquire

edited Apr 23, 2008 - 5:24 PM

[ Microsoft's cessation of DAV support has actually been a known issue for several years, as users of Windows XP SP2 running Outlook Express have long received the error message: "Hotmail no longer allows email access via Outlook Express for free Hotmail/MSN accounts." ]

Not entirely true.

This error message stems from the fact that Microsoft has started charging for access to Hotmail using Outlook Express or Outlook, not because they have closed the DAV protocol. At the same time, they also permitted a small group of Hotmail users to continue access their accounts for free using Outlook Express/Outlook - my Hotmail account is one such example. By June 30, these accounts must also migrate to WLM client to retain free access.

Score: 0

By imafurby

posted Apr 23, 2008 - 5:11 PM

Hotmail is utter crap, who cares?

Score: 0

By Skyfrog

posted Apr 23, 2008 - 5:09 PM

Hasn't OE been dead for years anyway?

Score: 0

By Scotch Moose

posted Apr 23, 2008 - 4:53 PM

"Outlook Express to finally end access to Hotmail"

Oh there's a nit.

It's the other way around as Hotmail is changing and Outlook Express is not going to be updated.

Score: 0

By raveen69

posted Apr 23, 2008 - 4:50 PM

makes you wonder why use hotmail, when you can have gmail how ever you want it. I switched some 4 years ago and while Gmail has not updated in a while, I am still impressed.

Score: 0

By Niro

posted Apr 23, 2008 - 4:52 PM

What's gmail have to do with outlook express...?

Score: 0

By Paul Skinner

posted Apr 23, 2008 - 4:55 PM

It has POP3; whereas hotmail doesn't.

Score: 0

By preinterpost

posted Apr 23, 2008 - 5:42 PM

Why bother with POP3 when it supports IMAP?

Score: 0

By Niro

posted Apr 23, 2008 - 4:59 PM

Really hotmail doesn't support POP3? I didn't know that...well I gotta admit, that is pretty dumb of them not to support it...

Score: 0

By Paul Skinner

posted Apr 23, 2008 - 4:43 PM

What a giant crock of s***.

Score: 0

By lvthunder

posted Apr 23, 2008 - 4:51 PM

Why Microsoft hasn't updated OE in years? This should just kill OE and offer Live Mail instead.

Score: 0

By bourgeoisdude

posted Apr 23, 2008 - 5:59 PM

They replaced OE with Windows Mail in Vista. For all intents and purposes, it is the same thing. The features, options, and capabilities are almost identical.

Score: 0

By Paul Skinner

edited Apr 23, 2008 - 4:57 PM

Both that OE hasn't been updated in years, and that they are abandoning their own product.

Score: 0

By lvthunder

posted Apr 23, 2008 - 6:05 PM

Software should not be expected to live forever. Sometimes abandoning something especially when the transition is easy like this is best. Just think of Live Mail as OE v2.

Score: 0

By Ramhound

posted Apr 23, 2008 - 5:56 PM

They are not abandoning it, it just came to the end of life and was time to force users to use their newer service.

Plus I am sure it cost them money to provide hotmail and windows live mail, so after all this time they decided it was time.

Its still free so whats the problem, and you migrate your mail...

Score: 0

By Paul Skinner

posted Apr 23, 2008 - 6:27 PM

Yes, but they've ****ed a load of users out of their email addresses.

That's not cool.

Score: 0

By dgootman

posted Apr 23, 2008 - 7:00 PM

How did they do that? You can still use Hotmail's web-interface, if you really don't want to use WLM. Am I missing something?

Score: 0

By Neoprimal

posted Apr 23, 2008 - 8:30 PM

You're not. He obviously is.

OE simply won't be able to connect and download messages from Hotmail anymore. It was a privilege in the past, and it's end has come - simple as that. The simple 'fix' is to download and install Windows Live Mail which in my opinion is way, way better than OE anyway.

Complaining about something like this is like complaining to a car company in 2008 that they no longer make the parts to fit your 1950s car.

Score: 0

By Paul Skinner

posted Apr 24, 2008 - 2:57 PM

There's no real reason why they shouldn't make Hotmail work when there are millions in not a billion email addresses still there.

Fair enough if it had fallen out of common usage but there's still thousands of people sigining up for new addresses every day and those people expect OE to support it.

Score: 0

By Hollywood__

posted Apr 24, 2008 - 11:58 AM

Good analogy. Remember the pneumatic power antennas and servo driven radio tune / seek on the old 1960's Cadillacs? They even had twighlight sentinel back then.

Score: 0

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