Hotmail cutover to Outlook

I have never used Outlook and in reading the posts here I see references to Outlook Express, Outlook.com, Outlook 2013, so I do not know what MS is converting hotmail users to. I have a WL account, but I never log onto IE to open it. I avoid all the ads that way. I use the Client version. MS is making the cutover to Outlook mandatory for hotmail users and I have already received the email indicating that I can upgrade now or wait for the mandatory cutover.

I have 25GB of free cloud storage with Live. Do I lose this at cutover, does it drop to 7GB? No mention of this on the MS Live webpage. The MS Live web page does not say how big the download is either, so I am not going to upgrade until I know. I hope it is not around 100MB or something like that.

 

Don't worry, they have just redesigned Hotmail's interface and relabeled it Outlook. For you everything will be the same. However, from now on you will just have to go to Outlook.com to sign in to your Hotmail account.

 

Outlook Express is ancient mail-client program last available in Windows XP.
Outlook 2013 refers to Microsoft Office Outlook part of Microsoft Office 2013. This is mail and calendar client that can also cooperate with the Microsoft online cloud services
Outlook.com is the new Hotmail.com . It is online version - new interface, new design, may be some new functions. It offers local access via the POP3 and Exchange protocols.

New users can't use Hotmail, but old users still can decided to stay with Hotmail. At the end they will all turn into Outlook.com

This is now called Microsoft accout. It was previously MSN account, Passports account, .NET account, then Windows Live account - it is now called Microsoft account.

If you need to, it can be done with any browser.

I don't know what it was before but for my language and location there were never adds. The new Outlook.com don't have adds.

If you read/send your mail via mail client, the new interface change is not for you. Keep using it that way

I use the web inteface and it does not show any space, so it could be unlimited for mail and new 7 GB free for SkyDrive. If you previously had 25 GB, then you will have them (most probably). They won't cut your old mail.

It is not a download and install, it is just web service UI and style change.

 

Thank you er34 for such an in-depth response. I very much appreciate all the time you put into it. I now fully understand what is happening. When I mentioned ads, I was referring to the days when I used web hotmail and there were ads down the side of my mail page. Never opened IE after I got client WL.

The only thing I missed asking. When MS does the cutover and my new mail address becomes xxx.outlook.com, my contacts will be sending me emails with my xxx.WL address. I read that these emails will still reach me. From what I read, this will continue (forever, not so sure).

 

Your email address will remain xxx.windowslive.com or xxx.hotmail.com. The only thing that will change is that now you will need to go to outlook.com to sing in. The websites for hotmail and windows live will be gone forever.

 

I found this on the MS Answers forum today. Finally got my answer...
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If you use your existing Hotmail address and password to sign into outlook.com, the answer is ................. no. You will continue to enjoy 25 GB storage capacity.
If you rename your account from @hotmail.com to @outlook.com, then you are considered as a new account, and therefore you will only get 5 GB storage capacity.
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There are a lot of complaints on the Skydrive forum about this. It seems that lots of users missed out on the 'loyalty program' and now with the 'above' situation' having not been published there are even more angry users.

 

Yes I got stung by that after following the Mis-advice of an MVP :|

 

When I logged into my Hotmail account earlier this evening, I was greeted by this. I was a holdout until the end.

 

Interesting. I guess I was lucky that that downgrade hadn't been implemented when I converted my hotmail email address over to an outlook.com address. And by the way, as others have noted the hotmail address remains valid as an "alias". It can't be used to log into the account but otherwise it works normally.