She was like, “Was this e-mail really sent by my friend?  It is a different sender address *wondering*?”

I explained her that the person used Hotmail to send the e-mail. Hotmail uses its own servers to send messages. Since you can use your own e-mail address with Hotmail, problems might arise if a message appears to be sent from your e-mail address, but not from your server (from Hotmail’s server instead).

This is why Hotmail is respecting the sender authentication and is using both the From and Sender headers to indicate that the mail was sent correctly. Yet, using these headers results in the On behalf of view in some e-mail programs, including Microsoft Outlook. The On behalf of line, however, is what makes people like my mom wonder what this is all about.

Yet, there is an easy solution to fix this. How? To get an idea, let’s take a look at how Google has solved it with Gmail. Look at this photo:

Instead of sending messages through Gmail’s servers, you may choose to send e-mails via your own SMTP (outgoing mail) server. This way, there is no authentication problem, as messages are only sent from the “correct” server.

Question being—why doesn’t Hotmail offer the custom SMTP feature? You may well receive messages from other accounts using POP, so why not send them via other accounts using SMTP? That’s one of the unanswered questions I have in mind.

Many things on your computer can be performed much quicker using keyboard shortcuts. From simple stuff like pressing the Windows key to open the Start menu, to more complicated things like the well-known emergency shortcut Ctrl+Alt+Delete—shortcuts are fast and easy. Make use of keyboard shortcuts in Windows Live Hotmail, too!

Here is the complete list of keyboard shortcuts to use within the Windows Live Hotmail web app:

Context menu (right mouse button) and keyboard shortcuts

In the recent update, the context menu has been extended with more features. You may show the menu by right-clicking on a message in your e-mail inbox. Now you can also reply, reply to all and forward messages directly using the context menu. The new context menu tasks get added to the existing actions Mark as unread, Delete, Junk e-mail, Move and Show source.

Another possibility for working with Hotmail efficiently are the keyboard shortcuts. From Outlook, you may know the Ctrl+N shortcut to compose a new message, and Ctrl+Enter to send it—they work in Hotmail as well! Furthermore, many shortcuts from other providers with as well, to help you if you’re familiar with Yahoo!, for example. Soon, I’ll publish a complete list of Hotmail keyboard shortcuts.

Individual e-mails

I’m sure you know how to design your e-mails with Hotmail. For example, you can pick your favorite font, or sign your messages with your personal signature.

Now, you can also define a default font for your e-mail messages. This way, you don’t have to set your favorite font over and over again for each new message you compose. Instead, you define a preference for any future e-mails that you send with Hotmail. Just like you’d do it in Outlook.

More new features

The Windows Live team has also enhanced how the Back button in your browser works. Also, e-mail drafts now store their attachments too.

If you have deleted a message in error and can’t find it in your Deleted items folder anymore, there is now a link to restore some of your older e-mail, at the bottom of your Deleted items folder.

Finally, you may have noticed Hotmail’s increased speed? The Windows Live team has added features based on HTML5. More details about this speed boost soon.

New phishing attacks to Hotmail have recently occured. This is what the security company Trend Micro is reporting.

The phishing e-mail targeted at Hotmail users looks like it was sent by Facebook’s security team. Even viewing the message in Hotmail’s web mailer compromised the system—clicking links within the e-mail was not necessary. According to Trend Micro, the security flaw has been fixed in Hotmail.

The incident shows that web mailers are one of the main targets for hackers at the moment. As soon as they control your inbox, hackers can control your whole communication of both past and future, for example by setting up an e-mail redirection.

John Scarrow, Microsoft Safety Services, declared that there is currently no information that Hotmail customers are victims of phishing attacks similar to the recent Gmail attacks. Nevertheless, the Hotmail team is aware of the danger that spam, phishing and similar scams arise, and takes action against responsible people.

Microsoft expert Mary-Jo Foley explains that the fifth wave of the Windows Live services is due in 2012 the earliest. In this wave, Hotmail could get revamped with HTML5-specific features too. For example, the Hotmail team is planning to support Offline storage.

If Microsoft makes full use of this technology, you would no longer need any separate e-mail client, as Hotmail would work even when you’re offline, offering you access to the messages already downloaded. This new HTML5-based Hotmail is said to replace Windows Live Mail as free e-mail client by Windows Live.

The introduction of Internet Explorer 9 was the start for a HTML5 initiative. The slogan “Beauty of the web” helps to understand the possibilities that web developers have thanks to the new HTML standard. Internet Explorer 9 is advertised as ideal platform for these features, as it was developed for Windows and supports native HTML5 applications.

With sticking to a standard that is supported by all browser manufacturers, Microsoft takes the correct direction. HTML5 definitely makes web developing easier. With their own services, Microsoft is becoming a model, after ignoring most web standards in the previous decade.

In the official Windows Live blog, Microsoft’s Chris Jones informed that the Hotmail problems have now been fixed.  Since 30 December, more than 17,000 customers did not have access to their messages.  Jones explains:

Customers impacted temporarily lost the contents of their mailbox through the course of mailbox load balancing between servers.  We identified the root cause and restored mail to the impacted accounts as of yesterday evening, January 2^nd.

For the future, the Hotmail team is taking measures to avoid this error.

Compared to the total number of Hotmail users, relatively few people were affected.  Nevertheless, the incident created much bad press, as media around the world published the news about it.  Previously, Microsoft had invested a large budget into advertising the Windows Live offers, among them Hotmail.

In the last months, a hard competition has raised between Google and Microsoft, concerning the users’ favor.  Of course, incidents like this one decrease the user trust quite fast. What do you think?

Together with some partners, Microsoft has introduced the new Hotmail Active Views platform. With this new feature, you can interact with e-mails in a whole new way to do certain tasks right within your Hotmail inbox. Dick Craddock, Group Program Manager for Hotmail, elaborates:

Starting this week, Orbitz and Monster.com will be the first partners to pilot this new type of email message for some of their communications. Just booked travel and need a hotel? The new Active View email from Orbitz lets you get started without delay. Want to find a new job? Monster.com’s new email helps you quickly take the first step.

In the coming weeks, the Hotmail team is going to present more partners for the pilot program, among them the web video service Netflix as well as the business networking portal LinkedIn. Hotmail Active View is based on the sandboxed execution of JavaScript and will make new interaction possibilities for e-mails available to you. For example, e-mail contents can now be updated dynamically.

Microsoft’s web mail service Hotmail, part of Windows Live, now supports SSL encryption throughout your session. Before, SSL was only used for the sign-in process. SSL includes encrypting the mails and data sent before they leave the computer you’re using. This helps that nobody in the middle can read what you get in your Inbox neither what you send.

Dick Craddock, Group Program Manager for Hotmail, adds:

Also starting today, SkyDrive, Photos, Docs, and Devices pages all automatically use SSL encryption, transferring all their data over HTTPS. By using a connection with advanced security features, you can be even more confident that your account is safer from hijackers, and your private information is less likely to fall into someone else’s hands.

To enable HTTPS encryption of your Hotmail session, follow these steps:

1. Browse to this Windows Live Account page.
2. If prompted, re-enter your Windows Live password. They ask for it to stop other people from changing your private settings.
3. To enable SSL, click the option Use HTTPS automatically, then click the Save button.
4. Done! Your webmail session is now encrypted.

Full SSL support for Hotmail may also cause problems when calling Hotmail via different domains than “mail.live.com”, or when using beta versions of common browsers, such as Firefox 4 beta.

If you encounter any problems while following the above steps, please leave a note!

Windows Live Hotmail gets a new feature: Now you can access other e-mail accounts from Hotmail. For example, you can send and receive Gmails within Hotmail’s interface.

In the Inside Windows Live blog, Group Program Manager Dick Craddock mentions that this was possible in the Microsoft Outlook application since long, just not on the Web. “Over 30 million people have already registered an email address from another service when signing up for a Windows Live ID to use Xbox, Zune, SkyDrive, or Messenger,” Dick says.

Sending and receiving mails from a different account is one of Hotmail’s specialities — just like Spam filters, multimedia messages, and the “Sweep” feature, allowing you to delete or reorganize large amounts of e-mail.

To start using this feature, just sign in at Hotmail with your Windows Live ID. You will be able to use Hotmail with your own e-mail address easily!

Until now, attackers could lock account owners out of their accounts by gaining access to the password (for example by phishing, trojans or unencrypted wireless networks) and changing this password after sign-in. When the true owner did not have any alternate e-mail address on file and forgotten the security question, accessing the e-mail account was not possible anymore.

Now, Microsoft is adding sending of password reset codes via SMS to help users regain control over their accounts in case of emergency. To activate this feature, you have to tell Hotmail your mobile phone number before anything happens. The SMS contains a code that you can use to have your password reset on the recovery pages.

Furthermore, a new feature called “Trusted PC” is added. You can use it to link a specific computer with your Hotmail account and thus helps you to reset the password in case you need to. So, the features are useful for people who keep forgetting their passwords, too.

To protect the new features from being manipulated by intruding people, you cannot change one option without confirming your change by means of a different option. “For example, if your account was already set up with an alternate email proof and you wanted to add a cell phone number as well, you would need to use the alternate email address to do it,” explains John Scarrow, General Manager Safety Services. “This means that even if a hijacker steals your password, they can’t lock you out of your account or create backdoors for themselves. You will always be able to get your account back and kick the hijackers out.”

Finally, Microsoft announced that connections to Hotmail will be encryted with SSL completely, not only the sign-in procedure, like until now.

Set up Exchange ActiveSync in iPhone

1. On your SpringBoard, tap Settings.
2. Tap Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
3. Tap the Microsoft Exchange logo.

4. Fill the fields as follows:
   • E-mail: <Your Windows Live ID = Hotmail address>
   • Domain: (leave this field blank)
   • User name: <Your Windows Live ID = Hotmail address>
   • Password: <Your Windows Live password>
   • Description: (doesn’t matter; my suggestion: enter your Windows Live ID or the word “Hotmail”)
   • Use SSL: I = enable
5. Tap the Next button.
6. iPhone might ask you whether you want to trust the certificate. If so, confirm this.
7. An additional Server field appears. Enter m.hotmail.com.

8. Finally, choose to synchronize all three items: Mail, Contacts and Calendar.
9. Each time, iPhone asks you whether to delete or keep your existing iPhone contacts. Choose your answer carefully, based on your personal needs.

Done! Now press the Home button to return to your SpringBoard, then tap the Mail icon in the dock. When you receive new mail, your iPhone will vibrate. You can always check the number of unread mail in your inbox in a red balloon appearing on the Mail icon.

In this webmail update by Microsoft, new features like filters, inbox sweep, quick views and more were introduced. Furthermore, some changes have been integrated into this version, like you will not be signed in to Messenger automatically anymore when you open Hotmail.

The update began more than a week ago, and the team saw the need to delay the rollout to all datacenters in order to fix some issues before the new Hotmail would finally be launched worldwide. If you notice any problems with this update, please report it to the Hotmail team, either in their blog or in the Windows Live Solution Center.

Mike Schackwitz, Program Manager in the Windows Live Hotmail Team, mentioned that in the meantime, over 100 million user accounts have been upgraded to the new version of the Webmail service. Therewhile, the indices for the new thread views are still being generated.

Until now, the rollout to Hotmail Wave 4 has been one of the smoothest transitions in the lifetime of Hotmail, Schachwitz stated. The upgrade will be finished until the end of next week, so then all users will be able to use the new Hotmail features.

Users of Windows Live Hotmail should prepare for a change in the coming weeks. As announced, the new version of Hotmail will be available for some 370 million users worldwide gradually. Then, Hotmail awaits you with numerous news: Microsoft has improved the spam filter and watches how you interact with your mail. With filters, you can find mails with attachments, images or videos faster.

For sending big photo albums, Hotmail will offer SkyDrive Web storage and integrating preview thumbnails into the messages. The recipient can then download the photos. With this, you can send up to 200 photos, each one up to 50 MB, per e-mail. Microsoft is also making it easier to use the own, proprietary formats. Office documents attached to an e-mail can be viewed on PC and Mac without installing the corresponding Office application or a viewer.

Microsoft has also improved the security: Each user can use single-use codes for signing in. This allows you to sign in at public computers, for example in an Internet café, without having to enter your login credentials. Your complete Hotmail session is SSL-encrypted, not just during the login phase.

I do not want to be forced to choose sending all my mail through Outlook just for the sake of getting rid of Hotmail’s advertisement footer in every single mail I send. This thought is the main reason for the Windows Live team to remove the advertisement bar entirely. Now it is up to you to send mail via Hotmail or a rich client — your recipients won’t notice the difference anymore.