The service allows users to send and receive emails for free from anywhere in the world and offers refreshed anti-spam and hack protection software for users.
Hotmail is connected to a slew of other services, including Windows Live ID, Skype, Xbox Live and other Microsoft services.
Hotmail was updated to integrate the new Outlook email service in February 2013, giving the interface a whole new look.
Here, the Express.co.uk runs through how to create and log in to your Hotmail account.
How to create a Hotmail or Outlook account
To create a Hotmail or Outlook account you have to create a Microsoft account. To do this, go to www.login.live.com and create a new account.
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You will need to input some personal information before you can complete this process. You have to fill in your name, date of birth, location, and username.
You can opt to log in via a new email address or you can use a phone number to sign up and confirm your new account.
Either sign in option will work to help you log in.
You must then create a new strong password to protect your account and personal emails.
It is recommended to include capital and lowercase letters, numbers and special characters (!@£$%) in your password to make it robust enough.
Once these steps are complete, you will be required to test your login with your new username and password.
Once done, you can begin adding contacts and using the email services to send emails and manage your account.
How to protect your Hotmail from being hacked
Hacking and security breaches have become more frequent as criminal sophistication improves.
Users will need to make sure their Hotmail account is as secure as possible when they are using it. This can be done in a number of ways:
1. Use a strong password that is difficult to guess and with lots of variation to make it as secure as possible.
2. Always connect to your Hotmail account with HTTPS, ensuring that you are on a secure server connection and that any data communication sent between you and the server will not be intercepted by hackers.
3. You must ensure that your password reset information in your Hotmail account is always up to date so in any case if you forget your password, you’ll always be able to reset your password using the recovery information. To reset your password information, you’ll need to go to Windows Live account
page.
4. There are times when you’ll need to check your email on a public computer when your own trusted computer is not available. You should always use HTTPS instead of simple HTTP on public computers.
5. Enable two-step verification for your Microsoft account for increased security, either through the Hotmail service or through a third-party app.