MSN is stopping, hotmail is changing. I have seemingly crawled out into old news
 

I think I have been kept in the dark about the whole hotmail is stopping and changing to outlook thing. I have never got any email about this topic I just read about it in comments of a news message that MSN is stopping too.
My question then is are there consequences for someone like me? I have used hotmail for my primary leisure email adress since I first got internet, I do not use any other service really; I don't use Skype often (in fact I only used it about 3 times this year for projects )and registered that account to my gmail, have no windows phone or anything. I read you can change the email to outlook.com by visiting the outlook website which is supposedly like the gmail page sort of speak and not the old program you have on your hd as I remember it (which changed to windows live mail). Can anyone explain this old news to me cause frankly I am getting mixed or confusing results all together.

Another is msn is stopping, all I hear from other people is; "ooh you still use msn?!". Yes I do, I read whatsapp is also a desktop application for chatting (which I thought was only used on phones) and so many seem to use the annoying facebook chat which for me is annoying cause I have to keep my browser open and get to hear the annoying message sound every time someone messages me (which is never). I have quite some friends who still use msn and do not use facebook or skype (skype is primarily videochat which I only use for official business, not leisure). Will the old version of msn (right now latest) remain in function? Will it stop working altogether? How is skype integrated with the same functions of msn, any good or terrible? And what are good alternatives; not things that do not allow the basic functions such as sharing, and what also allows importation of the contacts.

Regarding Hotmail, you can go to outlook.com and sign in with your @Hotmail.com, @live.com, or even @msn.com (I think, for the last one). There's no need to change email address. if you don't like the look, you can go back to the Hotmail look, but I think they'll eventually move everybody to the new look.

You can choose to change your address/domain to Hotmail, live or outlook, but it's not necessary. You can also just add one or more aliases.

Regarding Skype/WLM (it hasn't been called MSN for years), I read that WLM (the client) is being discontinued in favor of Skype (although I haven't seen any confirmation from Microsoft), but all that means is that there will be no newer versions of the client.

You can probably just use the current client. Even if not, you can still access the service from within the Skype client. You don't need to use the Skype features if you don't want to.

If you already have a Skype account, I read that you can merge it with your WLM account, but I can't verify how well that works since I don't use Skype.

1. You can still use hotmail at outlook.com.
2. You can link your Skype account with your MS account.
3. MS is working on getting all the features of MSN into Skype. idk how good/complete that is though.

Thank you guys for the quick response, it was kind of silly still calling it msn when yes it was changed to wlm a long time ago.
This surely clears things up for me, thank you.
I am not going to link accounts to my skype one though since my hotmail's address is rather old and therefore not professional at all, I want to use skype only for official business so will see if I can keep both separate or just make a second account.

Frankly, I'm surprised anyone ever got your mail from a Hotmail address :) I can't count the number of servers where the admins just decided to completely block hotmail packets because Hotmail was such a "den of scum and villainy" :)

And why would that be?

As I said, a "hive of scum and villainy" (Star Wars reference). Until the mid-2000s, as much as 80-90% of incoming hotmail packets contained spam, viralware, scams, etc etc.

http://techtips.salon.com/stop-hotmail-spam-1201.html

http://www.atlanticbt.com/blog/hotmail-sending-spam/

In the last few years, MS had tried mightily to improve their reputation but the perception remains that hotmail is, at best, not serious about self-policing. Plus, its the most popular address to use in forged email (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_job)

I've read about that before, but I never had any problem with any of my own Hotmail addresses being blocked.

I block mail with @hotmail.com addresses that does not originate on one of the hotmail servers to cut down on spam. It causes the occasional problem when the sender is on one machine but wants to receive replies at hotmail and uses that as the From address. (Most people don't know about the "Reply-To" header in standard Internet mail.) I apply the same rule to other heavily forged domains like gmail and AOL.

As someone who manages email listservers, I've had a couple of subscribers' accounts at Hotmail hijacked. Turns out some of the free mail services had such trivial requirements to change a password that you can learn how to do it by watching a YouTube video! Just do a search at YouTube for things like "hotmail tamper data" or "yahoo tamper data". The exploits rely on the legitimate "Tamper Data" add-on for Firefox that lets you muck with the information being posted to remote servers before it gets sent.

It amazes me that you can change your password online at these services. More secure services like gmail send you an authentication message that contains a custom link to change your password. It means you need another account somewhere, though I think there is now an option that uses text messaging.

I wouldn't mind this so much if every email and IM provider weren't so hell bent on integrating with every single social feature known to man (and several to birds). I hate spam as much as the next person, but no, I don't want to link my account to everything out there including your own special social services (Live and Play, gfy.), and I sure as heck don't want it all to automatically start up every time I open something.

I miss the days when things were as simple as register and use. I simply do not understand the desire to integrate everything and everything under social media and cloud junk. Convenience isn't everything, and when services break, it's incredibly inconvenient.

*mumbles something about kids on my lawn*

O gods, quoted for Great Truth. I simply do not care to have my MMO and gaming life littering my Facebook, or all my email, twitter, FB crosswired. I know WHY they're doing it (and it isn't for my convenience: data aggregation and mining for targeted advert sales) and it annoys the hell out of me :)

Aren't the integrations opt-in?

yes, but they ask you repeatedly. I've had 5 or 6 "invitations' to integrate my all my communication channels just today from various sites, emails, etc. I can see it moving to the "incessant" category within a year as the pressure increases to monetize the data aggregates of social media.

Ah, well that can be annoying, depending on how difficult it is to ignore their invitations.

Aye, (this is sort of off-topic for the thread because its social media + free email service + commercial websites stampede). Not a purely MSN/hotmail problem at all. :)

WHAT....Someone tell me more please. Windows Live Messenger is terminated then?

It's my primary form of social communication. And no, us in SEA are always slow to any news from Microsoft.

The official client will be Skype. That is all.

I see....but the WLM interface currently installed should continue functioning?

We'll see.

Only up to the time when they shut the system down, after that it'll fail at every log in attempt.

You can download and install the latest version of skype and log into that with your WLM details to make sure your ready for when it's shut down.