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Hotmail Becomes Outlook

This is the new Hotmail, which is now officially called Outlook (it had the label "NewMail" in the preview). Outlook changes the design and layout of Hotmail to bring it more in line with the minimalist design aesthetic of Windows 8 Metro, emphasizing straight lines, thin fonts and white space.

With no message selected, the only "action" item available is to compose a new message. Also note the text ads to the right of the Inbox

If you’ve been on the Internet for a long time, there’s a good chance Hotmail was your first email address. Launched in 1996, Hotmail was bought by Microsoft the following year, and the service has gone through myriad changes since then. Today, Microsoft is making its most radical change yet to the 16-year-old email service.

For starters, the Hotmail brand is toast. Microsoft is rebranding the service under the Outlook banner, moving the service to Outlook.com. The Hotmail site will still be there, and users won’t be forced to make the switch — yet — but the message is clear: Going forward, Microsoft email is called Outlook. You’ll still be able to keep your Hotmail address, and even use it as the one all your friends and family reply to, but your account will be an Outlook.com account.

Get Started Today at Outlook.com

While today's preview is just the start, Outlook.com is ready now to become your primary email service. We're expecting millions of people to try it out. Starting today, you can get an @Outlook.com email address, and we've also made it easy to get started with your current email address if you want to.  

• If you're a Hotmail customer and want to upgrade to the Outlook.com preview, just click "Upgrade" in the options menu of Hotmail. Your email address, password, contacts, old email, and rules will remain unchanged, and you can send/receive email from your @hotmail.com or @msn.com or @live.com address. You'll experience it all in the new Outlook.com preview user interface. You can also add an @Outlook.com email address to your account if you want.
• Using Gmail, Yahoo, or another email service? No problem - it's easy to try the preview by going tohttp://www.outlook.com/. If you have a Microsoft account, just log in and get started. If you don't, it's easy to create a new account with an @Outlook.com email address. Then you can set up Gmail or your other email service to forward your mail to Outlook.com and import your contacts and messages by followingthese instructions . This will let you use both services for now, but we think that over time, most people will prefer Outlook.com.
• Don't have an email address? Go to Outlook.com and create a new one and you'll be up and running.

Once you're using Outlook.com, you can also set it up on your phone (Windows Phone, iPhone, Android, Blackberry, or other phone), tablet (Windows 8, iPad, and Android), in the new Outlook 2013 Preview, or in other mail apps you might use. And because Outlook.com supports Exchange ActiveSync, you can set it up just like you would your Exchange or Hotmail account.  Have more questions? See our step-by- step guide to setting up Outlook.com on your phone.