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Connecting to Hotmail accounts in Outlook 2010

Hello everyone. My name is Alessio Roic and I’m a Program Manager on the Outlook product team here in Redmond. Today I will cover how to connect to your Hotmail accounts in Outlook 2010.

In previous versions of Outlook, connecting to Hotmail accounts could be done using one of the following methods:

  • Creating an HTTP account (also known as DAV protocol) – this allows users to establish a basic connection to their Hotmail mailbox and to synchronize their Inbox only.
  • Installing Outlook Connector (OLC) 12.1 – the OLC provides a richer experience, as it allows viewing and updating your Hotmail Inbox, Calendar and Contacts in Outlook.

In order to get your Hotmail and Windows Live Inbox, Calendar and Contacts in Outlook 2010 you need to install Outlook Connector 14 (OLC 14). OLC 14 is the next version of the Outlook Connector and it is currently in Technical Preview mode and is to be used with only with the Outlook 2010 Technical Preview.

OLC 14 offers the highest level of reliability and feature richness when connecting Outlook to your Hotmail account

  • Outlook Connector 12.1 is not compatible with Outlook 2010. However, OLC 12.1 continues to be the recommended method for connecting Hotmail to Outlook 2003 and 2007.
  • As already announced to all Hotmail users, the DAV protocol will no longer be used starting September 1, 2009 and as such it is not supported in Outlook 2010. For more details, please see the related Windows Live Wire blog.

Let Outlook 2010 determine if you need OLC 14 and install it for you

We are working hard to make sure that the experience of moving to Outlook 2010 is as smooth as possible when it comes to accessing your Hotmail accounts. Outlook 2010 is able to determine when OLC 14 is needed and points you to the correct download location for the OLC 14 package.

This detection occurs in two scenarios:

1. Upgrading to Outlook 2010 with a profile that contains at least one DAV and/or OLC 12 account

If your Outlook profile already included a Hotmail account, Outlook 2010 shows a dialog to indicate that in order to continue synchronizing between Outlook and the service you need to download and install Outlook Connector 14.

Clicking on “Upgrade Now” automatically starts the download of the OLC 14 package. Should you choose “Remind me later” you will still be able to browse the previously downloaded data for the Hotmail account, but you won’t be able to synch until OLC 14 is installed. 		clip_image001
Once Outlook 2010 is open the following message will be displayed in the main Outlook explorer if OLC 14 is needed: clip_image003
Should you chose not to download the OLC and dismiss the message, Outlook offers another redirector in the BackStage – just select the Hotmail account in the account picker and the following prompt will appear: clip_image005
Clicking on the Upgrade Now button will automatically start the download of the OLC 14.  

 2. Adding a @hotmail.com, @live.com or @msn.com accounts through the Add New Account dialog

Should you choose to add a new account that uses the @hotmail.com, @live.com or the @msn.com domain and OLC 14 is not installed, Outlook 2010 will prompt you to download and install it: clip_image007

Note: Should you choose not to install the OLC 14, Outlook 2010 will attempt to establish a connection to the server using the POP protocol. However this method only allows downloading your mailbox, while Outlook Connector also lets you view and update their Hotmail and Windows Live Inbox, Calendar and Contacts in Outlook.

Thanks!

Alessio Roic

Outlook Program Manager

Posted: Thursday, July 23, 2009 10:04 PM by outblog

Comments

wizard2277 said:

Alessio:

I'm an MSDN member and I downloaded Windows 7 on

Thursday.  I have now installed Office 2007 Ultimate

on this machine with Outlook Connector 12.1.  I

have tried more than a dozen times to get the

Connectore to correctly synchronize my Outlook

Inbox with my Live Mail Inbox, but it fails to

do so.  About 75% of the messages shown in the

Outlook Inbox have blank headers and blank

bodies.  OLC 12.1 worked fine on this same account

on my XP and Vista machines.

I didn't find the Office 2010 CTP on the MSDN

site and I wasn't invited (despite having more

than 40 years programming experience).  I did

try OLC 14 with my Outlook 2007, but it just

crashed Outlook.

Is there a fix for this Windows 7 problem?

Thanks for your valuable time,

Chen Coulter

Software Sourcery Systems, Inc.

wizard2277@hotmail.com

# August 9, 2009 1:30 AM

Alcides said:

Alessio,thanks a lot,it is wonderful and helpful

# August 15, 2009 6:47 AM

Byron Rosales said:

Hey Alessio:

I've added a @msn.com account, and I've tried to get the setting for this account automatically, but when I press the "Install Now" button of the window asking for install outlook connector, the browser just displays the MSN site...

Could you help me with a location to dowload the latest build of Outlook connector for Outlook 2010. (I'm aware it could be still a beta version).

Thanks,

Byron

# October 15, 2009 11:18 AM

Robin Majumdar said:

Does this work for live.ca accounts as well ?

# October 17, 2009 12:37 PM

mel gut said:

Thanks, Alessio, for the info. - helpful.

Problem: rcvd. 2010 TP last week - tried to launch Outlook 2010 and want to sync with hotmail acct.

I get no redirect to any OLC14 download page when I press "Install Now" on the "It is recommended..." dialog box.  It just goes to www.msn.com.

So, I canceled, and proceed with launch.  Obviously I can't see anything in Outlook but attempted to add account within application.  I get the "You must upgrade to the latest Outlook Connector..." message, but when click on "Upgrade Now" button, I get nothing.

Please assist, where is OLC14 page to get download?

Regards,

Mel - txtechtrainer@hotmail.com

# October 19, 2009 12:02 PM
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