Print - Microsoft Nixes Outlook, Outlook Express Access to Free Hotmail Accounts

Citing concerns about spammers abusing the service, Microsoft will announce today that the company is dropping a feature from its Hotmail service that lets nonpaying customers access their Hotmail email from Microsoft Office Outlook and Outlook Express. The feature is based on a technology called Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV), an extension of the HTTP protocol on which the Web is based.

"Since we implemented Human Interactive Proof (HIP) to ensure that only humans and not automated systems were opening Hotmail accounts, spammers have found other ways to go after the system," MSN Lead Product Manager Brooke Richardson told me in a prebriefing Friday. "Recently, there's been an increase in exploits of the WebDAV protocol, which is used to enable people to access Hotmail from Outlook and Outlook Express. We've offered [this access] for free for some time, although it's typically a feature that other email providers charge for. But because of the rise in abuse of this protocol, we're making a change to WebDAV to curb abuse. Over the next few months, we're transitioning WebDAV to be available only to customers of our subscription services, such as Hotmail Extra Storage and MSN Premium. We expect this change will help us to more effectively stop spam emanating from Hotmail."

Richardson said that only a small percentage of free Hotmail account holders use the WebDAV feature. "About 5 to 10 percent of people have it set up," she said, "but most don't use it. And among that group, most activated it once, then never used it again. About 95 percent of our users don't use the feature." Richardson was also careful to note that this change doesn't mean that Microsoft is walking away from its nonpaying users. "We continue to invest heavily in Hotmail," she said. "We've recently instituted antivirus scanning and cleaning and brought back the [free] MSN Calendar. And we're actively moving free customers to the new storage allotments we announced earlier this summer." Richardson said that the company will upgrade storage allotments for all free Hotmail accounts by the end of the year. Microsoft has already upgraded paying customers, such as those who opted for Hotmail Extra Storage, she said.

Microsoft won't immediately shut off nonpaying users who have enabled Outlook or Outlook Express access to Hotmail. Instead, the company will phase out those customers over several months and give them plenty of warning that the change is coming. "Free Hotmail customers who want to use WebDAV have two choices," Richardson said. "They can opt for Hotmail Plus, which offers 2GB of storage space and 20MB attachments for just $19.95 a year. Or they can subscribe to MSN Premium." Microsoft will continue to enable WebDAV for customers of both products, she said.

For more information about Hotmail Plus, visit the MSN Web site. For more information about MSN Premium, click here .

Good for Microsoft! Chalk one up to better security and less Spam! And hey, if you get to shake down millions of Hotmail customers for a few extra bucks in the process, so much the better! Microsoft brags on its website that there are over 100 Million active Hotmail users. If "only" 5 to 10 percent use Outlook or Outlook Express to access those accounts, you're still talking about a massive user base. This isn't about revenue? Give me a break. Microsoft is acting like a college student lifting up the cushions of his/her couch looking for quarters to pay for pizza.

Once again, the anti-MS crowd proves that MS is damed if it does and damned if it doesn't. MS doesn't move to plug holes exploited by spammers in hotmail and it's MS's fault for spam. It removes a rarely used feature from it's FREE mail service (hello, it's FREE) to combat spam abuse and MS is shaking those few people down? What? I must have missed the part where MS is FORCING anyone to do anything! Oh shut up you whiners, you don't deserve the break your hand is outstretched for.

I only ever used the Outlook Express feature to keep my Hotmail account open. I guess I'll just have to be a "good boy" and read all my spam once a month instead. Why they don't just fix the WebDAV holes instead of making users pay for the service I don't know.

Someone told earlier in this thread: 'once the service is FREE, you have no right to complain'. Hey, that's not correct. Nothing in this world is "free". IE was not a gift, and Hotmail or Yahoo are no gifts too. They meet corporate interests of their providers. In the end, we are paying them somehow. No profit-oriented company provides "free" services in the web for philanthropic purposes. These are investments that result in company growth, or combat concurrent companies in some way. It's all about money. So, if beyond the underlying benefits, the company can also receive some more money, it just gots better! As Mr Gates say, "we're just doing American capitalism"...

Mmm, Well I for one have had my Outlook express access cut off without any warning from MS. I can't help thinking 5 to 10 percent is an awful lot of people that are being slapped around by this bullying given the number of hotmail accounts. My account had just been upgraded to 250MB, which had left me marvelling at the improvement to the service. Other people who have not had their account upgraded have not had Outlook Express access cut off as yet. Might be a co-incidence, but makes you wonder about the tactic now MS no longer have the big "your mailbox is nearly full pay some more" stick to force you to upgrade. I guess I'm left to switch to gmail - if I've only got a web interface to access mail I may as well use the superior message threading, and extra storage.

MS is inviting us to leave Hotmail and change to other provider like Yahoo. Yahoo has increased the amount of available space some months ago. And is always free. You have a calendar, notepad, virtual disk space, and more. The only reason why I've been keeping my hotmail account is the HTTP access thru Outlook.

I have always supported MS in the past but this latest stunt makes me question my position. Instead of fixing the problem they are taking the easy way out. I wonder if we can get something like they have with cell phones, where I can transfer my email address to another provider. Like YAHOO

I think the reason that they're cutting it off should be obvious, and has little to do with spammers: WebDAV access limits their advertising revenue. Instead of seeing all the wonderful advertising for MSN products and their affiliates, etc., you JUST see your e-mail. Well, we can't have that, can we?!? We are Microsoft, and we say you WILL be bombarded by advertisements unless you pay us not to. Hmmm...it seems to me there's another word for that, and isn't that illegal? (The word is "extortion" for those who haven't kept up with me to this point.)

Ditto on the "I only have the free MSN email account to access the mail within outlook" since Outlook 2003 allows you to make that connection. Why then is that connector available in their email clients. This does not make sense. Once again, Microsoft is losing their customer base by implementing services that only paid subscribers can use. If I can only access my MSN mail via the web, then it's time to switch to GMail. More space, more features, and no more Microsoft propoganda. I am really dissapointed that Microsoft is not listening to their customers. I have a strange feeling this will come back and bite them in the end.

Microsoft upgraded the mailbox size ONLY because they were facing stiff competition from Gmail and Yahoo! I've had my Outlook Express access cut off a week ago without warning already. I don't give a damn about a larger mailbox, after all, I'm just using hotmail to receive junk and spam anyway (and they have the crappiest web interface, most ads, and the worst spam filter!!). I've been wanting to ditch hotmail long ago if it were not for the Outlook Express access. I say it's time to DITCH hotmail and go for GMAIL and YAHOO!!!

The only people who are saying it's free and we shouldn't complain are the DUMBASSES microsoft wants as customers. They are the technologically incompetent ones who don't know how to set up Outlook Express to access hotmail and are stupidly logging into hotmail everyday. Well to you DUMBASSES (e.g., DrestinBlack), keep on logging in and reading those ads (and clicking on those ads to buy viagra pills for yourself). I'm ditching hotmail for GMAIL!

I've been using my Hotmail account for years and only check it with outlook express due to the uncluttered interface; however now that I can't use outlook express anymore there's almost no reason for me to stay with hotmail. I've been getting storage issues for quite some time now and thought that when they announce the storage increase I would be saved...however this just saves me the hassle of waiting until they finally do it.....

Was using hotmail.com address as easy to rememeber email to communicate to people not familiar with email and to be free to change ISP. Since yahoo increased space to 100Mb and MS hasn't delivered on its promise of 250 Mb, I have been using more and more yahoo, especially for large atatchment (digital pics). Now i can not get outlook XP to work with multiple accounts, even from hotmail => I will shift away from hotmail

Thanks to Microsoft for the years of free and convenient service they've provided with Hotmail. I certainly think it would be unfair to criticize MS for changing the way they do business. Can't be much profit in all these free accounts tapped into the system in a way that negates the ability to deliver ads and other info that helps promote the business. Having said that, I do have to admit that I'd much rather see an open and forthright statement of the reason for the change. I'll admit it's quite possible that the explanation given makes sense and it's my own lack of knowledge that's to blame here, but I just don't quite understand how a spammer is going to know that I'm paying for my service instead of getting it for free. I presume I'm still using a login and a password in either case and so far I'm led to believe the technology for the currently free and the paid services is the same. So I'm left wondering what has been added to baffle the spammers. At any rate it's been great that MS has provided this service for all these years and I'll certainly miss the easy access.

I wondered why I couldn't check my hotmail account with OE today. No notice, no nothing. Good bye hotmail, hello gmail.

Just kill the MicroSoft Virus and open your mind to open source. You know, the idea that makes Mr. Big Gates wet his bed at night. The idea that the i-net is FREE!!! Absurd, I know, but try looking at open source. Once you go UNIX, you'll wipe the MicroSoft Virus from your hard drive forever!!!

Microsoft had one extra bonus point of accessing from outlook now it's gone. So now they loose their dignity as Microsoft no matter what is the reason behind this decision.

It still works with Outlook 2003. I have been upgraded to 250MB too. I will use it only because it's easy... but I'll perhaps start to use my Gmail one.

i can't believe they are saying we don't pay for the service. I payed the equivalent of about $400 for office 2003 and now i can't even check my hotmail with the program. next time i will think twice about buying a product that has its capability snatched right from under my nose. Capability i bought the product for in the first place. Well done microsoft for your well hidden small text in the liscence agreement.

I used outlook express to access my Hotmail from home, and, like so many other people, had my access to this cut off without even a hint of a warning from MS. That really pissed me off! Anyway, I just tried setting up my Outlook Express to access Hotmail again, just as an experiment really, but it worked! So have MS relented and made access to hotmail available via OE again?

What a complete SCAM by Hotmail !!!!! Hotmail is free.. if you don't use it! This totally makes me mad. Now I have to inform all of those on my email list that I am leaving hotmail address. What a compelete and total rip off from Hotmail. Free my a** ! Seems the only scams here are from Hotmail ... not from spams.

It is not free. I paid for my copy of XP which came with IE and Outlook express. Hotmail is owned by the same people I paid for the IE and Outlook express which offers the ability to connect hotmail accounts to Outlook express, as well as has it auto set up to perform this task. I DID pay for that hotmail account already thank you very much. And I paid for the IE and the Outlook express as well as the stupid "free" hotmail account. Free my A**. God you all are pathetic. This is not about plugging any holes because of spam abuse. It IS ABOUT hotmail trying to force people to pay for a service that was once free. That 5-10% quote I find highly inaccurate and completely unbelievable. What a complete scam to make some more bucks. Hotmail provided hooking up to Outlook express for free when I signed up for the account. Changing the service midstream should be and probably is illegal. I did my part and checked the stupid boxes for "INtersts = junk mail" and now they are not doing there part. See if you use Outlook express you don't see all the stupid advertisements by going to hotmail through a browswer. Thats the motivation behind this. To force everyone to look at the stupid advertisments (thus making them money), or purchase an email account still (thus making them money). Obviously its not free. Liars!

To Hotmail: IF this blocking of FREE hotmail accounts is to cut down on people and computer programs that do spamming, then how about allowing us who don't spam the OPTION to VERIFY we are not spammers, and still use our Outlook express to access our "FREE hotmail" Accounts ????? If you don't then it is just a scam by MS !

My son has been trying to get me to go to Linux for a year. This FRAUD by MS has finally convinced me. By MS. Hello Open Source !

I have 4 hotmail accounts. For almost 6 years now I've been using Outlook Express to check all 4 accounts for it's ease and better interface then the web. Apparently, Hotmail/MSN has decided that this service will no longer be free and that they will only provide it to users who upgrade to a plus package for $19.99 a year. The ONLY reason I keep my hotmail accounts was for the easy, free access through OE. It also makes it easier to check my email at work because I'm not constantly having to open a web browser to log on. I much prefer Yahoo and Gmail to Hotmail. Yahoo has given more free storage than Hotmail for the longest time and has added features like the My Yahoo page, the calendar, the notepad, the cooler messenger service which now includes Avatars, the merger with evite.com and hotjobs.com. MSN first pissed me off by deleting messages in all of my outboxes with no notice because of some new policy they'd instituted that they'd only save "sent" messages for 30 days. So messages I've had since I opened my first account 6-8 years ago were gone, never to be seen again. They then missed the boat by offering more storage to compete with GMail and Yahoo's increased storage too little too late. And on top of that they're having to roll it out in phases. Therefore, 2 out of my 4 accounts have been upgraded to the new storage limits - they are the two newest accounts. Apparently the oldest users get the upgraded storage last? Now they want to charge me $19.99 a pop to check my email through OE - again with NO NOTICE. Well, I say funk Hotmail.

I am sure someone will find a way, but the best part is till then those "5 -10%" users of HOTMAIL will move away... This is total FRAUD .. I don't think doing this without a warning makes any sense...

someone needs to file suit against MS for their blatant abuse of power. It seems as though there are no checks and balances for their repeated attempts to monopolize the market.

I received no notice that my outlook express was going to be cancelled. I was going to send an email and an error msg. came up. No warning at all.

i got same thing no warning - very very pissed off !!!! have opend a yahoo account as the yhave free outlook access !

I have seen news reports that say the service will be available for previous users of this feature until march or april 2005. Does anyone know how to re-enable access if this is the case?

I have been with Hotmail since before MS owned it. The only reason I'm still with it is to aviod abandoning my decade-old email address. Well my external access stopped working yesterday with no warning. Then I tried to send them a mesage through their "help" link, and all of the "contact us" links were broken. So I sent an email to support@hotmail.com and got an auto-reply that I had to use the help pages to contact them instead. So basically they don't want to hear from their users. In the meantime, I recommend everyone to go get a TRULY free, fast reliable email address from WWW.FASTMAIL.FM .. they are a fabulous service AND they let you use any email client (OE, etc) to access your account through IMAP, which is better than POP and better than OEHotmail.. and it's included with the free account. Suck it, MS, we're tired of your crap.

I received no warning either. So far, only one of my 5 accounts no longer works with outlook express but I'm off to find something that will and dump hotmail like they dumped me. I totally agree with a previous poster who stated that we should have been given the option to verify that we were not spammers. I'd rather pay for service elsewhere than be bullied into upgrading. Shame on you microsoft.

I recieved no warning at all, it was shut off as of yesterday. Down with hotmail!!!!

I use the OE integration and have set up the same for many friends. None of us received any notice and none have stated “Oh that’s so nice of Microsoft”, I’ll be happy to pay instead”. The reason I used Hotmail was because of OE access that I can’t get with Yahoo. Given that they are now the same, why bother supporting Hotmail at all? Hotmail had done a great job of cutting down on spam and the small amount that now gets through was just something you accepted as part of the “freebie”…and godammit, where am I going to get all my erection / baldness / MLM / refinancing / Nigerian business opportunity information from now?

Who needs Hotmail anymore where Yahoo gives 100 MB for free and Google for 1GB for free (all of which you can access from Outlook and Outlook express). Down with Hotmail, Down with Bill Gates and Down with Microsoft.

I'm so mad about this, I was wondering why Hotmail was crashing my Outlook whenever I tried to access it. What are some other good http E-mail services that are free and connect to Outlook?

Yahoo use to support this for free, nut now you need to subscribe to yahoo mail plus. This is the same as a for Hotmail. I guess that Microsoft and Yahoo made a pact to milk their users. I think that netscape have a free services stll, which is familiar to OE. So down with all this rich corporations. It's like they never have enough dough. here is the link. http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/mail/pop/pop-06.html

Well, if they think they can get (extra) money for their stupid service, get this. I am moving to yahoo and gmail. I only occasionally used http access to hotmail account, just to avoid stupid adverts and layout. If they M$ think that by restricting OE access to paying customers, thereby forcing others to see the adverts, they are mistaken. I use Firefox together with all adblock extension which is brilliant, keeps me free from seeing stupid adverts.

can we use eudora or another client to access hotmail? And its weird to start outlook now and get some hotmail accounts checked but not others, what do they want us to do that have multiple accounts, pay $19.955 x amount of times? to hell with them, im canceling all my accounts.

Well, I am seriously pissed. I'm glad to run into people who feel the same way as I do. I'm going to check out that gmail thing, as far as hotmail goes, I hope they wake up and try and right the situation instead of cutting the loss of 5-10 percent of their customers.

It's interesting how I noticed one of my three Hotmail accounts was cut off from Outlook Express access last week - only to be reactivatied today. Could it be Microsoft got a lot of complaints from us 5% or so Hotmail users???

I was just about to change my email address as well. I have been using my comcast account. I figured I would check the board one more time to see if anything had changed. After reading some posts I hit the send/recieve button and all of my mail was all of a sudden downloading. Could we have scared BG into changing his mind about this ??

Any legal gurus out there care to comment on whether this blackmail, er I mean hotmail strongarm revenue generator scheme is legal... i.e. is there any grounds for a class action suit? And my 2x$0.01 to those who claim hotmail is/was a free service: WAKE UP and smell the revenue generating spyware!!!

Mine still doesn't work so sent hotmail an email stating if they don't turn it back on i'll switch to gmail..... Hopefully they'll turn the service back on in the Netherlands as well.... Slimey b*sterds......

We all paid for OE when we purchased their software. I sincerely hope the market punishes one of greatest thiefs the world has. Spread the word: Do not buy anything else form MS. They plan to take it all away from us (even if we paid for it). I truly hope legal action against MS and his Mgt bring us back OE.

I sent this email to hotmail today: I have been very unhappy about my hotmail service lately. I have 5 hotmail accounts. This one is my oldest, I've had it for about 6 years. My oldest account has been the last to receive the storage upgrade. My two newest accounts that I've had for less than a year received the storage upgrades first. Secondly, my oldest account has only been upgraded to 25 MB while the other 4 have been upgraded to the full 250 megabytes. Lastly, while I understand the need for the company to make a profit, I was very displeased to find out that my ability to use Outlook Express to check my accounts was no longer available. I received no warning whatsoever, it just stopped working one day and I'm being bullied into paying to use the service. I've been increasingly frustrated with the lack of customer focused changes hotmail has made over the years. I have not had nearly the same amount of problems with yahoo and now gmail. I may just close all of my hotmail accounts all together and completely move over to Yahoo and Gmail.

I think its crappy that we have to do this. A buddy of mine doesn't pay for his. He got 2 gigs and I told him he was lying. I went to his house... He wasn't. And he don't pay for it. One of my accounts got upgraded to 25 and the other to 250. WHY?!? And WHY do we have to PAY for something that is FREE???

Gmail is google's new email service that is in beta testing right now. You have to get an invite code from a gmail account holder to get an account.

Advertising on the Hotmail site supports the cost of the service. View your mail through Outlook and it's 5-10% or more of their customers not viewing their crap. And isn't this really spam (unwanted advertising mixed in with my mail)? They make it sound like they’re doing you a favor by protecting you from the unfiltered email boogieman. We’re not children. Isn't the user intelligent enough to sort through their own email? Cut the BS; it's all about revenue.

Contact MSN Hotmail: http://support.msn.com/contactus_emailsupport.aspx?productkey=hotmail&ct=eformts

This is not about SPAM it is about a SCAM by Microsoft to force people to spend $20 for their lousy e-mail service. Well do they think that people really believe their lies...

That figures. I was wondering why a friend of mine could no longer send mail from her hotmail account through OE. So another so-called "free" service goes down the drain in the rush to scounge up some more chump change in addition to their overpriced, poorly engineered line of software products. I personally would love to see MS fall flat on their faces one of these days. Perhaps we could hasten the time to that day by refusing buy any more of their crap.

Um....I don't seem to have any problem accessing my Hotmail account through Outlook 2003 (non SP1). Has the Outlook access already been nixed, or is it still being rolled out?

Don't you guys know when you're being conned by MicroS*** - It's about the money. Blaming it on spammers is a lie. I've depended on Hotmail+OE now they take it away. Bill you don't need the money you are a big jerk.

Hotmail Sucks....no more Microsoft products, it is more complicated to use them, ana the stop supporting their products. Their customer service sucks too. They are controlling every aspect, like registering windows...etc. MSN is plain borring..I am moving to Lycos.com or Yahoo....if people show those companies that we **** on their service when they screw us over and treat us like crap, they would think twice about doing us like hotmail. I WILL NOT SUPPORT THEIR PRODUCTS AGAIN!!!!

Omg ... Once again the Giant is taking the p!ss out of us ... Another good way for them to get money out of the noobs ... Even pple knowing about IT have no clue about why this service is not wokring anymore ... No explanation, nothing, just a stupid msg saying : ERROR ... as usual ... Thank you Bill !!! ps : Thanks to for what you've done for the drama in Asia ... At least you you can do some nice stuff, when it's not IT related !!!

You can access yahoo mail via pop3 too. You use a software called YahooPops. It is very good. It works with Outlook Express, is free and so far, I have had no problems with it. Just make sure you have the most current version. I am using version 0.6 and it works fine. I cannot remember the site but if you put in an engine search I am sure you can find it easily enough.

How can I contact MSN to complain about bullying that is going on through MSN Messenger. It is not the first time that this has happened but the third time. The bullies in particular have defamed a person's name with their vemon and have made threats. Any suggestions or comments please!

you all are lucky, I can't even access my acc. anymore from home, I can from other computers but not at home, wich sucks, and how can they block the use of outlook office, concidering it cost so dearly for the prog. itself....oh well, Gmail works much better, and yahoo has made many improvments to there system and spam filters and such. go yahoo

Interesting to read through these responses. Ofcourse everyone has different needs and expectations from their email. I just set up outlook express for my hotmail 'backup' business account as compuserve (my main email client) has started blocking so many of my past (and guess future) client email addresses. Of course this is only a temporary measure. It is useful to have the messages stored on the hard drive and since having started to use outlook for work thought I would put my personal hotmail account onto outlook in the office as well. I have had both accounts for years, one has not been upgraded and I was allowed to create an outlook identidy, the other has been given the free upgrade (about 3 years ago) but this account was blocked. Oh well. It is annoying to have to move away from hotmail for my personal email (if they eventually start charging) as it is the only personal address I have had for about 8 years and I never get any spam in my mailbox. My email is ... nah, I'm not that daft. does anyone want to invite me to gmail?

When I already have a 2MB hotmail account for free, why would I suddenly be happy to start paying for it just so I can log in via outlook express?

Well, it's April 25th and I'm still getting email using Outlook with both of my Hotmail accounts, though I really should get on the ball and get the word out on my email addresses at gmail. And update any services that use my hotmail account. I liked using Outlook to check my mail. It's efficent and quick. I'll just be sad to have to put aside my 9 year old email address from before MSN aquired the service. I'm usually the last person to criticize Microsoft when everyone else likes to, but they dropped the ball on this one. Thanks alot for making an old faithful user leave you, Microsoft.

For those who still want to use Hotmail with Outlook or Outlook Express, there are two third party programs that I know of that allow you to download Yahoo, Hotmail, Lycos, and other web-based email into your chosen email client without having to subscribe to any of them. The links are as follows: www.jmasoftware.com (This is Web2Pop) www.izymail.com (This is Izy Mail) Both have 30 day trials. I still think it's stupid for MS to take away free HTTP access, since the only email clients that use the Hotmail interface are THEIR OWN EMAIL SOFTWARES. But I must blame Yahoo for this. They are the first one's to take free POP access away in favor of a subscription. I just hope Gmail clobbers them all and keeps the free POP access, so these greedy corporations have to reverse themselves over their losses.

Dear sir my question is i have beeen created hotmailaccount but, the samething to change in the outlook express, how to do it , but it is giving some errors, saying that payment required , while downloading the folders,

what about a "crack" for this? OE is Microsoft... Hotmail is Microsoft... why this block???

Doesn't anyone remember? If Microsoft are able to take on the Supreme Court of the USA and win then they are a law unto themselves. Why would they care about you and your stupid little PC? To them a Windows equipped PC is a tool designed specifically to separate you from your hard earned cash. They are just upgrading their tools. I had been with Microsoft since DOS 1.1 and Hotmail for 6 years, I recently migrated to Linux, I now have a more capable operating system that WinXP2, although I must admit the boxed set did cost me £25 and a linux manual £28. These are the best home computing investments I have ever made. I was with Microsoft for 24 years, obviously Microsoft place a very low premium on customer loyalty. I can not immagine the circumstances under which I will ever buy another MS OS. Their loss my gain.