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At least they are releasing some explanations of this Connector.  I currently have a subscription to Hotmail Plus, so I am very happy to see that I'll be able to sync everything.

I still can't find any information about joining the beta or where/when it will be available.  I guess I'm just too impatient to wait and find out when "Coming soon" is.

I've been missing this feature since they canned it and rolled it in to that worthless MSN Premium service years ago.

I think Microsoft shouldn't go on with this Premium features. What they need in their position is to have killer features in the competition with Google and Yahoo. In my opinion things like the deactivation of mail accounts after some time of being inactive if you don't pay for a premium account is bullshit (while at Gmail you don't have such problems, ok you have other problems, because it has no imap). Also here, the possibility to sync the calendars would have been a really big improvement to the google calendar. But they don't do it and I don't know why. They're not the number one in this business, they're number three. Windows Live Hotmail and also this little tool here are really good products. But they just throw away the chance to make great products that really differ from the google and yahoo applications.

I cant seem to sync my calendar. Says something about needing a premium subscription, yet I am a Windows Live Hotmail Plus user...

does this now mean that when a message comes up in  messenger outlook will open the message?, as does in live mail

DN2004, that is disappointing to see.  I was hoping to start cleaning up my hotmail account and resync everything since they turned this off a few years ago.  Guess the calendar will have to wait until they get the bugs sorted out.

According to bink.nu

"when I signed in via webmail, then back to outlook connector it worked, so it must have triggerd something. Sorry for the confusion and hopefully this tip will help others with problems."

Just a small question.

Is it possible to use its Sync capabilities to backup old messages I have?

How can I do it?

Thanks.

zeke009:  There is no official beta for the product, it's just posted on the Microsoft Download site.

@Matthew

G-Z:  I agree on the lack of Calendar support, however we have our fingers crossed that Windows Live Mail client beta will support it in the future.  I think that Microsoft may be trying to keep Premium customers on the business side, just like there's a paid and free version of Outlook.  Thus if you use Outlook, you'll have to pay for Premium calendar access, but if you're just a regular consumer and use Windows Live Mail client, *hopefully* Calendar sync will be free.

I know no one wants to hear about paying for stuff, but there is no advertising model available for MOOC, but there is one for Windows Live Mail client.  Google may not have a Premium model, but they do have an advertising model in everything.

Thanks for your comments!

@Matthew

Drazick:  Although I replied to your personal message, I'll let others know if your issue will work.

You can sync any messages in your Outlook store to Hotmail by moving them to a Hotmail folder.  However, you asked if the messages will keep Outlook formatting, and that is a very big if.  In the past, MSN has had problems trying to keep Outlook formatting since Hotmail and Outlook are two completely different message stores [Hotmail is *not* OWC].  So, try it on a few test messages with the Outlook formatting you use to see if it works.  I would add flags, follow up tags or whatever, move it to Hotmail, remove the account, add it back, and then resync to see if it's all still there.  Also, if the formatting is extremely important to you, then I would only use the online store as a secondary backup.  Although Hotmail is pretty much done upgrading the major backend SQL and stuff, they could make small upgrades or changes that could wipe out flags, etc.

Basically, if WLH's web interface supports a certain kind of formatting [i.e. date/from/to headers, HTML, etc] then yes that formatting will be supported.  If it's only in Outlook, then it could possibly not work.  For more guidance, check out this KB: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/892455 [tho it's out of date] and more support information at the following.

http://support.microsoft.com/outconn

http://support.microsoft.com/outlooklive

I hope that helps, tho it might be a little confusing and take a couple of times to read over!

@Matthew

Matthew, no offense here but I think you created a level of confusion that isn't needed from your post.

Hotmail Plus users DO NOT get Calendar sync which you stated above. Only MSN Premium, Office Live Essentals, and Office Live Premium subscribers get calendar sync at this time. I currently have Hotmail Plus and do not have Calendar sync.

And you say there is advertising model for the Windows Live Mail client? You should be careful making statements like that. The Windows Live Mail Team has not committed to any sort of ad model for having ads in the desktop email client at this time - a fact stated on their own blog.

I had the oppertunity of talking with a PM on the Outlook Connector Team. Check out my post on the Windows Experience Blog:

http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsexperience/archive/2007/06/11/microsoft-office-outlook-connector-beta-now-available.aspx

Too bad the calendar doesn't sync for Hotmail Plus customers. I was looking forward to using it on my work PC. If I could buy a premium subscription here in Denmark I would, but they don't really seem to push the whole web thing overhere. Maybe I should yell at them next time I am in a meeting with them :-(

That's strange, I have hotmail plus and the calendar sync works perfect!! Yes indead! I don't have msn premium of office live etc... I'm working on windows vista with office 2007. I do have live domains (but that's free). After install (in a new profile, and making my hotmail account the standard account), I also thought it didn't work, but I left my outlook open for about 1 hour, and when I came back it started synchronising my mails, contacts, calender, tasks etc... I have about 400 MB of emails, so I still had to wait 1 hour more before everything was downloaded. (Yes that slow comparing to live mail "desktop"). Once done it worked perfect. (Now real time synchronising of the calendar between outlook and webmail. Almost realtime for the email (after deleting, moving messages etc). it's my second day i'm using it and I don't have problems so far... So don't give up yet and give it a try! ;-)

I don't know where I read it, but Windows Genuine Advantage is definately required, not like it is mentioned on this site! I can't even download it!

BTW do you know if contacts' category is synchronized ?

Office Genuine Advantage is needed for the non beta version available http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=aa0ad3b0-e1a4-4990-a2be-dde78fed0709

Office Genuine Advantage is not needed for the beta version available

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7aad7e6a-931e-438a-950c-5e9ea66322d4&DisplayLang=en

Brandon: The confusion around Hotmail Plus actually comes from the MS download page where it states you need "A paid subscription-based e-mail account from MSN Hotmail, Windows Live Hotmail or Office Live". WL Hotmail Plus is such a paid subscription. Also the word "Premium" doesn't appear once on that page.

Agreed that the WL Mail ad-supported part was misleading as the Mail team hasn't said whether contextual ads will be mandatory.

As Brandon stated, Hotmail Plus users can not sync their calendar.  I can view my Hotmail calendar next to my Outlook calendar... but that does absolutely nothing for me.  Yea, I can look at a blank calendar!

When I clicked on my Hotmail Tasks from Outlook I was greeted with a message that I needed to upgrade my service.  Sweet!  I'll get right on that after my neighbor finishes kicking my dog.

So... Microsoft made a decent step with this.  But how in the hell can they "miss the boat" so badly?  Let's cancel a free service our users like (MSN Sync), revive it 2.5 years later, tease them with certain functions and make them sign up for one of our pointless and completely useless service plans?  Hotmail Plus is good, I like that one... $20 for a year, I can live with that.  But MSN Premium is nothing but a Premium Steaming Pile of Dung.  

MS frustrates me to no end some days, this is one of those days.

I'm with Zeke009 on this one. I synced my email and my contacts on my work PC, running Vista and Office 2007, hoping that the calendar would sync as well. But no such luck.

The calendar sync was my primary reason for downloading the Outlook Connector and buy a Hotmail Plus subscription.

So let's try this once more with feeling.

tewmgd: yes, the categories are also synchronised for contacts. For the calendar to, but if you wnat the colours, you need to give them manually (once per category).

Humm.. Am I the only one that doesn't have any problems? It seems to be if I read this posts... Maybe you can try what I did: create a new profile (with your hotmail account). Install outlook connector. Restart your PC and outlook. Delete your hotmail account in that profile. (I will be re-created when entering your login & pasword in the outlook connector).  In outlook 2007 (I think it's the same in 2003), go to extra, accounts, email. And make your hotmail account the standaard account. delete any other accounts if still listed. Now you hotmail account is listed on top (also under calendar, tasks, contacts). Restart your PC. Wait about 1 hour... I hope this will works for you, it worked for me. I will try it later on (maybe today), on outlook 2003 to see what happens.

I'm running windows vista, outlook 2007, hotmail plus.

@yanverm

When you access mails using a browser you synced fro Outlook into hotmail, how do they look?

Do they retain the outlook formatting?

Thanks.

@ Drazick

What do you mean with "outlook formatting"? If you have read it in outlook it will be marked as read in your webmail. If you delete it, it will delete the mail in the webmail etc. What doesn't get synchronised is for example: the (red or other coloured) flags. You can choose to let outlook synchronise it automatically (every 5 or 10 minutes I think), or you can do it manualy by pressing the send/receive button.

Did this information help you? greets.

@yanverm

Thanks.

Yet it's not what I meant.

Lets say you have a message in Outlook. You got it from another Outlook user who used Outlook special features (Background for the message, picture, signature etc...).

Then you synced your Outlook with Hotmail, which means the message is now in the corresponding folder in your Hotmail folder.

When you log into your Hotmail account using a Web Browser, does the message looks the same?

I use AOL IMAP, and messages I uploaded via Outlook to my account are "Text Only" when viewed in AOL email using a Web Browser.

Thanks...

@ drazick

hello again, I tried what you told. And apperently this doesn't work well. (never paid attention to that in the past). I made an email in outlook with different "special features" and send it to my hotmail account. The only thing that I saw from my original mail in outlook was the text, and a simplified background colour. followed by <<..>> I tried it in the webmail, and that was the same. Next I made a mail in windows live mail (desktop) with the same kind of "special futures" and that worked better: in outlook it was 100% the same, in the webmail the background was gone and the text colour set back to the default black colour...

When receiving save (html) newsletters, however, there's no difference between outlook and the webmail. They all look like the original messages.

So to answer your question; "When you log into your Hotmail account using a Web Browser, does the message looks the same?", the answer is no not realy, it doesn't look 100% the same. It depends on the "software" used, the "type" of email (html newsletter or not) and the type of "special futures"...

Greets!

Thanks.

The reason I asked it is I don't use Outlook, yet I have few old Outlook messages I wanna be able to see from time to time.

I thought using this feature to "Backup" them on Hotmail.

Yet as you said they won't look the same when I access them using a web browser which means it will be useless.

Thanks.

A little update about the installation (see my previous posts).

I installed it on a second PC (windows XP this time, outlook 2007). I followed the same installation procedure, but this time after the installation of the connector and reopening outlook I received a message popup. Something like: you have a privillegd account, do you want to migrate it to outlook? I pressed yes, and had to restart outlook again. only one minute later, my contacts, calendar, tasks etc. where downloaded...  Now his downloading all my emails, but that's about 400MB... Did anyone else succeed?

Ps: by making your hotmail account the default email account, you will be able to synchronise with your mobile phone or PDA... (by connecting it to your pc of course. (if already installed, you may have to make a new connection)). (Be sure you have a backup first ;-) )

Good luck!

@yanverm:

Are you saying that I should delete my hotmail account in Outlook 2007 and recreate it?

Would this allow my Outlook Contacts to sync directly with Hotmail?  Because as it stands right now I can only view my Contacts as seperate entities.  Meaning I have 2 address books, 1 for Outlook and 1 for Hotmail and I can't sync them.  

I would really prefer they revisit this utility and see what they had done with the old IntelliSync for Hotmail a few years ago.  That little GUI did exactly what I needed it to do.

To all of you guys!

First of all. I have some bad news. I tried it again with another live mail plus account I own, and it didn’t work! I could synchronize my mails and contact, but not my calendar! So that’s something strange, why can I with one account and not with the other one? The only difference between the two is that the one that works, is a live domain (http://domains.live.com ). So unfortunately I think, you won’t be able to have that calendar working with “classic” hotmail (plus) accounts… Damn, that’s frustrating, why do we pay for the “plus” then!? I hope the guys from Microsoft  will be clever enough to change this in the near future, otherwise they will lose a lot of paying subscribers!

@zeke009

It won’t help to delete your hotmail account and to re-install it. Hotmail will stay in separate folders. I think the best thing to do, is to copy-paste your contacts from one folder to the other… (with a PC: ctrl+a, ctrl+c and in your hotmail contacts folder: ctrl+v).( If you want your main folders from hotmail on top, follow the steps below.)

In meantime I have a lot of people asking, how to synchronize with your mobile phone / PDA, here’s the way to do it:

I would first try it out in a new profile, so you still have a "backup". If successful you can delete your old profile. To create a new profile: under start button, configuration settings, email). Give in another email address than your hotmail (e.g. your provider pop3 account). When opening outlook, go to outlook connector and enter your hotmail login & password. You will need to restart outlook. After restarting, go to extra, accounts and make your hotmail account the standard account. Delete your old main account in there (= your pop3 e.g.).

In outlook 2007, there's next to the email tab a tab where you can adjust the place where the data is stored (in Dutch called 'gegevensbestanden'). I must be there somewhere too in outlook 2003, as far as I can remember.  There you have to make your hotmail account the standard account too. (you can't delete your personal folders, so just leave this).  Restart outlook and your pc again. After reopening outlook, your hotmail account should now be on top, just as the contacts folder, calendar etc. This mean, when you make a new connection with your mobile phone or PDA, this folders (on top) will get synchronized. (how to make this connection, depends of your phone of course… (see the manual ;-) ). Just be aware that if you have already contacts in your phone, they will get into outlook and of course also into hotmail. (also in the other direction: your hotmail contacts get in your phone). So you have best one of the two blank… or you can clean it out afterwards…

Good luck!

I have Live Hotmail free account.

I downloaded outlook connector and install it.

It's my only mail account in Outlook.

When I open Outlook it says I don't have a subscription.

Why?

I don't need Contacts / Calendar sync. Only mail, yet the service isn't available to me.

Thanks.

@ Drazick

Regarding to the hotmail support team, the outlook connector is only available in countries where office live & MSN premium is active (such as the US, UK,...). I still don't understand why it works for one of my two live mail plus accounts... (and I live in Belgium) I supose I'm just the lucky guy... ;-)

My account address is USA. So that's not the problem.

Maybe because I use a localized version of Outlook.

Yet this problem is spread, so I guess there's more in it.

Well, I've just renewed my old Plus subscription in the hope that I could sync my calendar and notes.... but I can't... does it need to be a "Premium" subscription???

Brandon:  As Chris said, I was referring to the fact that download page states "A paid subscription-based e-mail account from MSN Hotmail, Windows Live Hotmail or Office Live". WLHotmail Plus is such a paid subscription. Also, the word "Premium" doesn't appear once on that page.  I would think Microsoft would want to keep Plus subscribers by offering this service, but with the recent FAQ they posted, apparently it was intended.

As far as the possible ad opportunity, I was referring to the Active Search advertisements for US accounts.  Who knows if it will be there in the final version, turned on or off, but it is a possible ad opportunity.

Thanks for the comments, I wasn't offended.

@Matthew

@Matthew... I had this response just now...

-------------------------------

Hello David,

Thank you for writing to Windows Live Hotmail Technical Support. My name is Un-named and I have read that you encounter an error message when synchronizing the Calendar through Outlook Connector. I know how inconvenient this can be on your part. I am definitely willing to assist you with this.

David, please be guided that Outlook Connector is only available for MSN Premium subscribers only. For more information, please contact the Support Team of MSN Premium.

For your convenience, I provided you the information where to contact them.

MSN Premium Technical Support

Transfer Code  21

Telephone number  (800) 494-2962

Hours of Operation  Monday - Friday  05:00 to 22:00 Pacific Time (UTC-8)

                               Saturday and Sunday 05:00 to 17:00 Pacific Time (UTC-8)

Technical Support Web site  http://support.msn.com

I understand that you may feel that you are being bounced from one support group to the other, but they are the correct team to contact for this particular issue. Please accept my apology for not being able to assist you fully.

You are valuable at Windows Live, and we look forward to providing you with consistent and effective service. We appreciate your input and involvement in our Windows Live products.

Sincerely,

Un-named

Windows Live Hotmail Technical Support

-------------------------

So let's not be under the illusion that a standard hotmail plus subscription is enough to get your calendar syncronised. IT'S NOT.