Why is Hotmail divorcing Outlook Express?

[DPH]

I'm wondering why Microsoft has decided to drop support of Hotmail from
Outlook Express. Outlook Express has been my email program of choice since
it became available. It not only does Hotmail but my Gmail account too. I
also use it for newsgroups. I have resisted switching to Windows Live
because Outlook Express does everything I need in one desktop program.
Unless I missed it somewhere I don't believe Windows Live has newsgroup
capability. Why won't Microsoft just update OE to work with their new idea
of running Hotmail?

Doug

[VanguardLH]

To: microsoft.public.windows.
DPH wrote:

Hotmail history (obtained through Google, Wiki, and various other
sources)

- 1996 July: Hotmail becomes available. Provides a webmail interface to
e-mail service.
- 1997 December: Microsoft buys Hotmail to include in their MSN
services.
- 1999 August: Anyone can log into any Hotmail account using the
password "eh"
(http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/1999/08/21503).
- 1999 December: Microsoft forgets to pay their passport.com domain
renewal fee. Hotmail is unavailable on Christmas Eve. A Linux
consultant pays the fee and Hotmail comes back up.
- 2000 February: For MSN Hotmail, POP3 access is discontinued and
switches to WebDAV access. MSN "legacy" accounts created before that
date continue
to get POP3 access. MSN Hotmail accounts created after that date only
get WebDAV access which restricts them to using Microsoft's Outlook or
Outlook Express e-mail clients (later some plug-ins or proxies become
available to allow non-Microsoft e-mail clients to access Hotmail but
they get killed in 2004 November except for paid accounts when WebDAV
access gets pulled from free accounts).
- 2002 July: For free Hotmail accounts, POP3 access is discontinued and
switches to WebDAV access. Hotmail PLUS (paying customers) gets
POP3/SMTP mail host access.
- 2003 (autumn): Microsoft forgets to pay their hotmail.co.uk domain
renewal fee. Another good Samaritan pays the fee. No downtime.
- 2004 November: Microsoft changes policy to disable WebDAV access for
*new* free Hotmail accounts created after that date. Old (and still
active) free accounts created before that policy change date (i.e.,
grandfathered accounts) continue to get WebDAV access. After this date,
Microsoft charges for WebDAV access. New plug-ins and proxies start
showing up to compensate. Old plug-ins and proxies still work with
non-Microsoft e-mail clients for *paid* Hotmail accounts where WebDAV
access remains.
- 2005 November: Microsoft officially announces Windows Live Mail
(codename Kahuna), later rebranded to Windows Live Hotmail. Goes
through some beta testing.
- 2006 November: Windows Live Hotmail first released to existing and new
Netherlands users as a pilot market.
- 2007 May: Microsoft releases Windows Live Hotmail to worldwide market.
Users can elect to stay with the MSN Hotmail or try the new Windows Live
Hotmail (classic or full) interface. They are given an option (which
eventually disappears) to switch back to MSN Hotmail.
- 2007 June: Microsoft introduces DeltaSync, its replacement for WebDAV.
- 2007 September: Users start reporting that Microsoft begins
involuntarily *forcing* MSN Hotmail users to migrate to the Windows Live
Hotmail interface. One day they were using MSN Hotmail, the next they
were forced to Windows Live Hotmail without any action on their part,
and they cannot switch back.
- 2007 September: POP3 access returns only for Windows Live Hotmail Plus
(paid) accounts but not for MSN Hotmail Premium (paid) accounts.
Requires SSL connects and SMTP authentication (pop3.live.com port 995,
smtp.live.com port 25 with SMTP authentication, SSL on both).
- 2008 June: Microsoft disables WebDAV on all accounts and forces use of
DeltaSync protocol. For free Windows Live Hotmail accounts, users will
need to use Outlook 2003 or 2007 with the Outlook Connector plug-in
(post-1.8 version) or the Windows Live Mail client. For PAID Windows
Live Hotmail accounts, users can use any POP3/SMTP e-mail client. The
webmail interface remains available for free and paid accounts as it has
been ever since Hotmail existed.

So if you have a POP3 account with Hotmail (i.e., a paid Windows Live
Hotmail Plus account), you can continue using Outlook Express,
Thunderbird, Outlook, Windows Live Mail, Eudora, or whatever POP3 e-mail
client you want. A Microsoft blog back in Nov 2007 mentioned the return
of POP3 access for paid accounts (Windows Live Hotmail Plus only, not
MSN Premium) and that in a year they expected to return POP3 access for
freebie Windows Live Hotmail accounts.

If you are currently using WebDAV access in Outlook Express (i.e., an
HTTP account) they you have a paid account to get that WebDAV access.
WebDAV is going poof in June 2008 which means you will have to move to
Outlook with its Outlook Connector plug-in or Windows Live Mail which
support the new DeltaSync protocol.

So, for now, and if you demand on using Outlook Express past June 2008
when WebDAV is discontinued, and because Outlook Express is a
discontinued product that died after service pack 2 for Windows XP (back
in 2005), you'll either have to pay to get POP3 access or drop Hotmail.

POP3 on Hotmail Explained: we talk to Omar Shahine
(also mentions why they're going to DeltaSync)
http://www.liveside.net/blogs/interview/default.aspx
which has the meeting recorded (audio only) at:
http://www.liveside.net/files/folders/5578/download.aspx
(or you could use the link in the blog page to download and play the
.mp3 file)

When playing in Windows Media Player, under View -> Enchancements,
disable SRS (if on) and use the graphic equalizer to drop the bass end
to make the audio more clear. There was a lot of rumble or low-end
noise and echo in the recording.

Head on over to the microsoft.public.outlookexpress.general newsgroup
and read the big discussion under the subject "ANN: MS Announces Changes
for Accessing Hotmail with Outlook Express", or go to the Google Groups
copy at:

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie6.browser/browse_frm/thread/54b191d2ef1c9614/269537f48d70c7a2#269537f48d70c7a2
(short url: http://preview.tinyurl.com/5hcahj)

By the way, you would have seen that Windows Live Mail *DOES* include
support for newsgroups (NNTP = network news transfer protocol). Alas,
their description at http://get.live.com/wlmail/overview doesn't mention
NNTP support but it is there. I've been playing with it for awhile in a
virtual machine (using VMWare Server). However, I no longer use OE or
WLM for newsgroups because it is too crippled a newsreader to give me
control over dropping or tagging unwanted posts or other NNTP management
tasks, but it suits average users. Well, it's certainly better than the
webnews-for-dummies gateway to Usenet that Microsoft provides in
pretending that they have forums. Some users want really, really
simple. Some what simple. Some want more power, ar ar ar, vroom vroom.

Microsoft *did* update Outlook Express to work better with Hotmail and
even gave back access to freebie Hotmail accounts. The update is called
Windows Live Mail. Stop fretting about not knowing how to use WLM. You
already know how to use WLM because you know how to use OE. Of course,
if you still resist moving to WLM, you could pay to get POP3 access or
you can still use the webmail interface for Hotmail that has been
available since its conception back in 1996.

---
* Synchronet * The Whitehouse BBS --- whitehouse.hulds.com --- check it out free usenet!
--- Synchronet 3.15a-Win32 NewsLink 1.92
Time Warp of the Future BBS - telnet://time.synchro.net:24

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

See http://emailsupport.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!5D6F5A79A79B6708!5359.entry
and this related thread:
http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie6_outlookexpress/browse_frm/thread/54b191d2ef1c9614

Windows Live Mail includes an NNTP newsreader.
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Desktop Experience - since 2002
AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
DTS-L http://dts-l.net/