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Microsoft extends the lifespan of Outlook Express, Hotmail anyway

By Tim Conneally, BetaNews

May 6, 2008, 1:12 PM

The Windows Live Mail team recently announced the phase-out of the legacy DAV protocol would draw to a close on June 30. That date, however, has now been postponed.

Like the extension of XP's lifespan, Microsoft says the extended date to the Outlook Express DAV Deprecation has been the result of customer feedback. The transition away from the protocol would end Outlook Express' access to a user's Hotmail inbox, and customers were originally encouraged to switch to Windows Live Mail. Instead of using the Distributed Authoring and Versioning protocol, Live Mail uses Deltasynch, which is ultimately more efficient.

Microsoft representatives told BetaNews that customers will be able to continue accessing their Hotmail accounts through Outlook Express beyond June 30 so they may have more time to "evaluate alternative solutions such as Windows Live Mail and to migrate their e-mail and contacts to them."

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By gininderra

edited Jun 22, 2008 - 3:08 AM

The problem for me relates mostly to the loss of Windows Address Book (WAB) when you make the switch from Outlook Express to Windows Live Mail. The product I use to synch contacts between the PC and my Palm rely on there being a WAB. The supplier of the Palm synch software has no plans to support WLM contacts. I imagine many other users would have problems if the WAB was no longer used by the email client.

Score: 0

By ammari

edited Jun 11, 2008 - 6:50 AM

Until this moment I'm having troubles accessing my Hotmail via WLM (like many other uses who face the same problem)!

If Microsoft wants the users to stop using OE, they should deliver a decent alternative before even thinking of such a thing!!!!

Really upsetting!

Score: 0

By Carioca

edited May 10, 2008 - 9:00 AM

I'd be fine with moving to Windows Live Mail and I've done that on my Windows XP Home & Office PC. However when I try to download/install it on my other PC, I get the message: "... cannot be installed on Windows XP Professional." So by purchasing the more expensive Windows XP Professional, I now find it's not compatable with Windows Live Mail. Any comments or suggestions out there?

Score: 0

By DudeBoyz

edited May 6, 2008 - 9:50 PM

This is great for me for a couple of reasons.

First, I use OE-QuoteFix, which is an incredible little bit of software that does not work with Live Mail but does work with OE 6.

Second, the Live Mail app is buggy and crash prone, at least on my rigs.

What I'd like to find out is:

Just how long will we be allowed to keep using OE 6 to read our Hotmail accounts?

Anyway, it's a good move by Microsoft, imo.

Score: 0

By God Dammit

posted May 7, 2008 - 2:59 PM

People still use OE 6 for accessing Hotmail accounts through DAV? I thought this was an obsolete menu option that Microsoft forgot to remove. It's much easier to go to the Hotmail website to view e-mail if POP3 is not available.

Score: 0

By Grazer

posted May 7, 2008 - 3:48 PM

Not if you have four accounts to check it isn't.

Score: 0

By God Dammit

posted May 8, 2008 - 2:16 AM

If you have that many accounts you probably should have signed up for a POP3 compatible e-mail service instead of relying on a proprietary protocol.

Score: 0

By JarHead100

posted May 6, 2008 - 7:01 PM

I'm with ya Morsel !!

Score: 0

By Morsel

posted May 6, 2008 - 3:35 PM

Thunderbird baby ;-) best freeware mail client out there ;-) cross-platform & bullet-proof.

Score: 0

By mjm01010101

posted May 6, 2008 - 4:00 PM

If it's so bulletproof why are there 14 revisions of the current version alone?

;)

I use it too, but only for newsgroups. It doesn't hold a candle to outlook.

Score: 0

By Tenoq

posted May 6, 2008 - 9:15 PM

Bollocks. It's kicks the pants out of Outlook Express... which is what the article is about.

Outlook - well that's apples and oranges. Not the same product. Bit like comparing Notepad & MS Word. :p

Score: 0

By fatty

posted May 6, 2008 - 4:38 PM

how long has it been out?

Score: 0

By Setian^Stalker

edited May 7, 2008 - 5:52 AM

July 2003 though I am not sure why you couldnt google that yourself? :)

Score: 0

By fatty

posted May 7, 2008 - 8:09 AM

ah...so it has been out for almost 5 years.

so basically three "revisions" a year is what it averages out to. i would say it is pretty solid especially when compared to the M$ product.

how many patches did that have in the same period?

Score: 0

By Setian^Stalker

posted May 7, 2008 - 10:32 AM

No idea about amount of patches ms had in that same period but its really hard to compair the two.
Microsoft product was released already feature full and finished where thunderbird started out extremly light and built on its foundations.

Score: 0

By JarHead100

posted May 6, 2008 - 2:29 PM

I almost forgot...could my case just be a coincidence, or, is Microsoft really being a nice guy by not killing Outlook Express on schedule. I'm using Vista Home Premium with SP1 and I'm not going back to XP or Outlook Express......

Score: 0

By JarHead100

posted May 6, 2008 - 2:21 PM

I've spent a week with Live tech support trying to get the Windows Live Mail desktop client to send/receive on my hotmail account and it's still not working. Today, they blamed my ISP for blocking their DeltaSync server....NOT. I was going to give Microsoft one last chance to have a desktop email client that would receive mail on all of my accounts; i.e., POP3, GMail, and Hotmail. Forget it !! Microsoft doesn't play and work well with others and, even without getting my Hotmail through other desktop email clients, I'm less frustrated sticking with Thunderbird. I'm outta here....

Score: 0

By dkratter

posted May 6, 2008 - 9:08 PM

I've been using the Windows Live Mail client since the early WLMd beta days, with Hotmail and Gmail (POP and IMAP), and I've had no significant problems. The only problems I can recall with getting my Gmail actually turned out to be Google's fault, not Microsoft's.

Score: 0

By Hollywood__

posted May 6, 2008 - 1:31 PM

Sissies. Cut off XP and Outlook Express tomorrow.

Score: 0

By fatty

posted May 6, 2008 - 2:36 PM

does anyone still use Outlook Express?

Score: 0

By mmoak

posted May 6, 2008 - 3:23 PM

I don't. I do use Outlook 2007 and have to admit...it's not terrible.

Score: 0

By Hollywood__

posted May 6, 2008 - 5:43 PM

OE does the job but Windows Mail ala Vista is way better. The junk mail filter catches 99.999% of all the crap and you never see it.

I've heard of Thunderbird, but I really have no need for it.

Score: 0

By fatty

posted May 6, 2008 - 6:12 PM

Why deal with it locally when you can just use Gmail or Yahoo email and let them deal with spam etc...?

Score: 0

By testman

posted May 7, 2008 - 10:05 AM

Cos in some cases (like Yahoo! for example) their spam filters are rubbish.

Score: 0

By lvthunder

posted May 6, 2008 - 2:06 PM

Why wait for tomorrow? Do it now.

Score: 0

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