MSN Hotmail

• Popularity:

  #2 in Communications (out of 141 products)

• License:

  Free

• Editor's Rating:

  4.0 stars

• Average User Rating:

  2.0 stars (out of 35 votes) Rate it!

• Visits:

  85,386

• Requirements:

  Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003 Server

• Limitations:

  No limitations

• Date Added:

  May 04, 2005

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Publisher's description of MSN Hotmail

MSN Hotmail is the world's largest provider of free, Web-based e-mail. With Hotmail, anyone can read and receive e-mail messages from any computer in the world. It's great for people who use more than one computer, travel frequently, or do not own a computer. Your messages are stored in a central location, so your Inbox is always up to date, no matter where you are. With hotmail you can feel more secure. With powerful spam filters and thorough virus scanning & cleaning, it helps keep your inbox free from contamination. Easily connect & share. A huge 250MB inbox and the ability to send up to 10MB files or photo so that you can send & receive e-mail from any Web connection. Express yourself with unique emotions, signatures, background choices, fonts & layout styles.

Editor's review of MSN Hotmail

• 4.0 stars

This Web-based e-mail client is easy to use, but it doesn't offer much in storage space compared to competing sites. MSN Hotmail isn't a downloadable application; rather, a link takes you to MSN's site to register for a Hotmail account.

The Inbox interface is very intuitive to use, thanks to large, clearly marked buttons, although it is a little cluttered with the Flash advertisements that are typical of Web-based e-mail clients. The default font size is a bit small, but that and other settings are simple to change from the Options menu. The interface for composing a message is very clean and included no ads during our tests. When we set up an appointment or added a contact, however, the site responded sluggishly and we were unable to save those new listings. Otherwise, the program responded quickly when we performed other tasks.

The basic e-mail services are free, but competing sites such as Yahoo! and Gmail offer larger storage capacity and more readable font sizes. Regardless, if you're searching for a Web-based e-mail client that you can use anywhere, and storage size isn't an issue, Hotmail is worth trying out.

User reviews

• Average user rating: 2.4 stars out of 35 votes
• My rating: 0 stars Write review

• Showing 5 of 24 user reviewsSee all 24 user reviews
  This software version | All versions

• 1 stars

  0 out of 5 people found this review helpful

  Version: MSN Hotmail

  "This is not a program!"

  by barakat_khaled on March 13, 2007

  Cons: just a link to hotmail

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• 2 stars

  3 out of 7 people found this review helpful

  Version: MSN Hotmail

  "What the....?"

  by Mrsone on June 6, 2005

  Pros: It's mail.

  Cons: This is NOT an email client. It is just a link to MSN's webmail site. Hotmail is behind the times in email space. I have 2.2 and climbing GB on Gmail and 1GB on Yahoo. Hotmail gives no where near these amounts. Then you have to check your webmail once every month, or they will make your account inactive and delete all of your mail. Don't bother. Get Yahoo! mail if you must, or ask for an invite to try Gmail, but avoid MSN Hotmail.

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• 4 stars

  3 out of 4 people found this review helpful

  Version: MSN Hotmail

  "Hotmail is a very good e-mail solution."

  by wfrye on April 24, 2007

  Pros: 1. The interface is very good.

  2. Compatible with ALL Microsoft Passport sites.

  3. Easy-to-use.

  4. The most popular e-mail in the world, so 400 million people can't be all wrong.

  Cons: Hotmail is not very secure - hacking is very easy.

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• 4 stars

  Version: MSN Hotmail

  "What do you expect from microsoft!"

  by stevenho22 on July 2, 2008

  Pros: It is easy to use and it is free.Gmail is far better!

  Cons: It doesn't have any real defects.

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• 2 stars

  6 out of 7 people found this review helpful

  Version: MSN Hotmail

  "Not good enough to stand a chance against the competition."

  by randyjohnston on June 11, 2005

  Pros: MSN Hotmail provides free web-based email. Hotmail lets you accept mail from known senders only, and makes it easy to report spam. It also can be accessed comfortably from Outlook and Outlook Express.

  Cons: Overall, the MSN Hotmail interface is rather slow. MSN Hotmail doesn't have nearly as much storage space to compete with Gmail or the other over 1 GB webmail services. Hotmail doesn't thread or otherwise sort and organize messages. It lacks virtual folders and email search functionality. Improvements are needed to Hotmail's buggy spam filter. Hotmail doesn't offer POP or IMAP access and doesn't have email encryption or digital signatures. You will also have a relatively limited address book size. In addition, the flashy and annoying banner ads can increase load times.

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