Hotmail has been the world’s most popular webmail service, started in 1996. Later it was acquired by Microsoft and then relaunched as MSN Hotmail, after which it was rebranded as Windows Live Hotmail and finally relaunched as Outlook.com. Although Hotmail has been converted into Outlook, it did not affect the user base of Hotmail, still, there are millions of users who are using Hotmail as their primary email. The main advantage of this conversion, which users get is enhanced storage, calendar, Skype, contacts, and more related web apps. If you are willing to join Hotmail or not able to log in and also, do not know where to start from? Then this step-by-step guide is for you. Here, every step is depicted in a very simple manner. So stay tuned.
How to create a Hotmail account?
Creating a Hotmail account is not that hard, it follows similar steps like other email clients available on the internet and it does not cost you anything, which means it’s totally free. Since Hotmail has been converted to Outlook, I will have to go to “Outlook.com” instead of “Hotmail.com”. Find below the steps to be followed for creating a Hotmail account.
- Go to Outlook.com using any web browser
- Click on Create Free Account
- Enter the unique email of your choice and select Hotmail from toggle (available on the very right side of the email), then click Next
- Now, it will ask for a password, choose your password wisely as it will be used whenever login will be made on Hotmail. Also, it should be strong.
- Now a new window will come up and will ask you to enter First Name and Last Name.
- A new window will come up asking for Country/Region and Date of Birth. Enter these details and keep them in mind, as this information will be used later to recover the account if somehow you lost access to the account.
- Now, in the next window, it will verify whether you are human or bot. So, just verify yourself and click on the Next button.
- After completion of verification, a new window will come up which will ask you to enter your Phone Number (For security reasons) and then click on send code. The intake of the phone number by Hotmail will help you in the coming future when you will lose access to your Hotmail account or password, which can be recovered easily using a Phone Number.
- Now you will receive OTP (One Time Password) through messages, put that code into the text bar and click on the Next Button.
- On the next window, you will get Outlook Tutorial and after going through this tutorial, a brand-new window of the email will be shown, using which you can access all emails and related apps like calendar, contacts, etc.
After having discussed “how to create a Hotmail account?”, it’s time to log in to the account. There are basically two ways to log in to a Hotmail account, i.e. either by using a mobile or web browser. Every attempt is made to clear the steps. So, below are the steps, please go through them.
How to log in to Hotmail on a web browser?
For this step, you must have a web browser installed, it can be Chrome, Firefox, or any other. After having installed the web browser, follow the steps as described below:
- Go to Hotmail from here and since Hotmail has been merged with Outlook, a new window of Outlook will come up.
- Click on the button (located in the top right corner of the window)
- A new window will pop up, which will ask you to enter your email, phone number, skype ID. After submitting the entries, click on the Next button.
- Now, a new window will come up, asking for a password. Enter your password there. One thing to be noticed here is that if you have not logged in for the last 365 days then you will have to create a new account (method of which has already been mentioned above) as the latter account will get disabled.
- Click on Sign in and and if your credentials are correct, no problem should stop you from login into your account.
So these were the steps, if you are willing to access Hotmail via a web browser. Now if you want to access Hotmail on a Mobile Phone then consider reading further as ahead from here a complete guide is given for the same.
Access Hotmail on Mobile Phone
Accessing Hotmail on mobile is quite simple and does not require a steep learning curve even for a newbie. In order to do so, you must have Hotmail or Outlook installed on the mobile and here I am providing a complete guide of how to install and further related steps, so stay tuned and keep reading.
- Install Outlook app on Android, iPhone, iPad
Since Hotmail and Outlook have been merged, So, you will have to download and install the Outlook app on mobile. In order to do so,
- For Android Users: Go to Google Play Store and tap on the search bar, following which, search using the string “Outlook” and here you will get a link with the name “Microsoft Outlook: Microsoft Corporation”. Tap on it and then click on the Install button. After a while, Outlook will get installed automatically on your mobile, and click on the open button to start using it.
- For iPhone/iPad Users: Go to App Store icon, a new GUI (Graphical User Interface) will open up, on the bottom of which tap on the Search bar and search for Outlook. Some search results will be shown, choose Microsoft Outlook from search results and then tap on GET to install it on iPhone or iPad.
- Open The Outlook App
To open the Outlook App, all you have to do is tap on Outlook App Icon from the mobile screen. A new window of the Outlook app will open up, then tap on Get Started (located in the middle of the screen)
- Enter Email Address
A new window will open, asking you to enter your email address. So, here you will have to write a Hotmail email address. After entering the email address, tap on continue (in case of Android) and Add Account (In case of iPhone/iPad). - Enter Password and tap on Sign in
Now a window, asking for a password, will be prompted. Here you will have to type your Hotmail password and then tap on Sign in Button. After the password is found to be right then you will log in successfully, else you will have to check the password or request a new password by clicking on Forgot Password. - Tap on SKIP or MAYBE LATER to bypass the “Add Account” form
So these were the steps of making a login into Outlook using either Android or iOS. Both operating systems have been covered with easy steps. Now, I will share how you can log in to Outlook using an email client in both the Operating System i.e., Android, or iOS. Steps will again be easy and descriptive so that you do not feel any hindrance while executing the steps.
Login Hotmail using In-built Email Client Application
An inbuilt email client helps in managing messages for offline purposes also. Using this, you can easily operate messages on the go over your cell phone. Below are the steps to achieve this, and steps have been categorized for Android and iOS users.
For Android Users
In order to access Outlook as the email client, follow the below-mentioned steps:
1) Firstly go to settings
2) Then tap on Account
3) Now, scroll down to Add Account
4) Choose IMAP or POP3 as the account type
If Chosen IMAP
(IMAP stores the message on the server and synchronizes it with multiple clients.)
It’s time to configure the email client. If you have chosen IMAP then,
- for incoming mail server use imap-mail.outlook.com
- use server port as 993
- Authentication: Yes
- Encrypted Connection: SSL
- For outgoing mail server (SMTP) use smtp-mail.outlook.com
- Use server port as 587
- Authentication: Yes
- Encrypted Connection: TSL
If Chosen POP3
(POP3 downloads the email from the server to the client device and then deletes them.)
Put the following settings in the email client:
- For incoming server use pop-mail.outlook.com
- Port:995
- Authentication: Yes
- Encrypted Connection: SSL
- For Outgoing server use smtp-mail.outlook.com
- Port: 587
- Authentication: Yes
- Encrypted Connection: TSL
5) Now, sync all your Hotmail data as per your choice
6) As the last step, enter your credentials to log in and check whether you have configured correctly or not.
For iOS users
Steps are :
1) Launch your iPhone Settings
2) Go to Mail>Accounts & Password>Add Account
3) Tap on Other >Add Mail Account
4) Select domain Hotmail.com
5) Enter Hotmail email address & password
6) Choose either IMAP or POP and put the configuration settings as described below:
If chosen IMAP:
- for incoming mail server use imap-mail.outlook.com
- use server port as 995
- Authentication: Yes
- Encrypted Connection: SSL
- For outgoing mail server (SMTP) use smtp-mail.outlook.com
- Use server port as 587 or 25
- Authentication: Yes
- Encrypted Connection: SSL
If chosen POP3:
- for incoming mail server use pop-mail.outlook.com
- use server port as 995
- Authentication: Yes
- Encrypted Connection: SSL
- For outgoing mail server (SMTP) use pop-mail.outlook.com
- Use server port as 995
- Authentication: Yes
- Encrypted Connection: SSL
7) Choose what kind of data you want to sync with Hotmail
8) Tap on the Save button
Conclusion
So these were the detailed steps of “how can you log in to your Hotmail account”. In addition to login, account creation has also been discussed at the top of the article. If somehow you failed to enter into your Hotmail account, it might be that you have forgotten your password and in order to attain it, you can go for the “Forgot Password” link available at the bottom of the sign-in window.
