Today, we are changing the way Windows Live Hotmail messages come into Microsoft Office Outlook, Outlook Express, and Entourage. While you may have to tweak some settings, you will notice additional speed and efficiency. Please check out our previous post to learn what you need to do in order to keep receiving Hotmail in Outlook, Outlook Express, or Entourage.

Keep in mind, this does not affect access through the web and customers can continue to view Hotmail messages on the web at http://mail.live.com or http://www.hotmail.com.

Questions or trouble updating your mail program? View the FAQ page or visit the help community.

Technical details for those who are curious. Microsoft Office Outlook, Outlook Express, and Entourage use the legacy DAV protocol to access Hotmail messages. Today, we are retiring the DAV protocol. As Hotmail storage has evolved, DAV has become an inefficient solution for syncing e-mail (it downloads the whole mailbox instead of just changes). We have two alternatives now: DeltaSync and POP3. DeltaSync synchronizes your e-mail, just like DAV, but is much faster since it only downloads the latest changes to your mailbox. Both the Windows Live Mail and Outlook Connector e-mail programs use this efficient protocol. POP3 is a tried-and-true protocol and works with nearly all e-mail programs. If choosing to use POP3, there are a couple of things you need to keep in mind about the protocol. Click here to find out more.

Thank you for using Windows Live Hotmail.

Sincerely,
Your Windows Live Hotmail Team