Switch To The Outlook-Hotmail Connector Now
After reading this article from Amit Agarwal, I decided to install the Outlook-Hotmail Connector software, if only to see what the differences were between it and Outlook’s standard Hotmail connection (only available to Hotmail Plus users). The software has proven more than worth the free download, and I’d recommend every Hotmail user install it now.
What’s different? Well, for one thing, you don’t need Hotmail Plus. Any Windows Live Hotmail user can use it, and free Hotmail users get almost the same features as Plus users get without the Connector, as well as better interaction with Outlook’s interface (especially the Junk Mail filter). Plus users also get to synchronize the Outlook calendar with the Hotmail calendar, which is useful now and should become doubly useful when the full Windows Live Calendar is announced.
The program works a lot better at caching your Hotmail inbox than Outlook does, download messages silently in the background and syncing them as needed. It respects your connection and takes its time, but if you try to open a message that isn’t synced, it’ll download immediately. There’s a new toolbar that shows you the sync status (it’s been an hour, and 398 of 3532 messages have been downloaded).
I’d recommend this download in a second for any Live Hotmail and Outlook user. Whether you have Hotmail Plus or not, it’s a no-brainer. It’s available for Office 2003 and Office 2007, and requires validation.
Is this accurate? There seems to be a LOT of debate regarding Hotmail Plus users having the ability to sync their Hotmail Calendar with Outlook. It appears no one has an authoritative answer. One says only MSN Plus Subscribers, others say differently.
Comment by Chris | August 23, 2007
So, if I’m a plus subscriber and already sync Hotmail to Outlook 2007, how is this providing anything additional?
Comment by David | August 23, 2007
This is confusing, people say you can sync Hotmail Plus Canendar while others say you cannot. I seem to not be able to
Comment by Liam | August 23, 2007
Hotmail Plus users are supposed to be able to, but I’ll have to look into it. I have MSN Premium, technically, so I couldn’t test out that specific scenario.
David: The syncing of mail is way improved and significantly faster, it uses Outlook better (like deleting to the Hotmail trash, not the Outlook trash), it uses Outlook’s junk mail filter and message rules, and it syncs your contacts and calendar.
Comment by Nathan Weinberg | August 23, 2007
I am one of the confused ones in this case. It is possible to connect Outlook to the Hotmail/live account in two ways I suppose - via the Outlook connector or via POP3/SMTP (details in the help of your account settings). Maybe it is a third way via HTTP with old Hotmail accounts also - the new upgraded “Live mail” uses MAPI as the client/server services at least as default. Until now I have not found any way to synchronize my calendar with Outlook 2003/2007 - although this is promised in the upgrade process when aquiring a “plus” account.
The quest for a solution is on…
/Trygve
Comment by Trygve Harvei | September 3, 2007
What is the rationale for not allowing synchronizing outlook calendar with the hotmail calendar. This is the biggest reason I still use Yahoo because it offers a sync’ing tool and haven’t full-force migrated to Live. Yahoo’s access with the calendar to Outlook is free, and so should Microsoft’s.
Comment by chu | November 7, 2007