Make Hotmail your homepage in Chrome (Google)
If you use Google Chrome as your default web browser, or if you use it solely to check your Windows Live Hotmail emails, a nice way to quickly load your account is to set Hotmail as your homepage in Chrome. Unlike other tabbed browsers, Chrome currently only supports a single homepage: but you can also make Google Chrome automatically load the websites that were left open last time you used it, a setting we'll briefly mention on this page.
Set Hotmail as homepage in Google Chrome
Follow these steps to make your Hotmail inbox the Chrome home tab:
- If needed, open Google Chrome
- Instead of making the Hotmail sign in screen your homepage, we'll use your Hotmail inbox: this means that when you click on the Home button, Chrome will directly load your emails, and not a login form. If you want, first see how to automatically sign in to your Hotmail account, and follow the same procedure before going to your inbox (or other folder you want as homepage).
- Once you are in your inbox, copy the URL (web address) from the address bar:
- Then, click on the "Gear" menu, and choose "Options": the Google Chrome Options dialog will open, with the "Basics" tab automatically selected (otherwise click on it).
- Under the "Home Page" section, Chrome gives you two choices: either use a blank tab or a specific site as homepage. Click on the "Open this page" radio button, and paste in the text field the Hotmail inbox address you copied earlier.
- If you want to see a Home icon (that you can click to go to your Hotmail account), check the "Show Home button on the toolbar" checkbox.
- Finally, click on OK to save your new Hotmail as homepage settings.
The next time you click on the Home button to load your homepage in the current tab or a new one, your Windows Live Hotmail inbox will open, and skip the sign in form if you chose to earlier.
Tip: On Windows and Linux, you can press the Alt+Home keyboard shortcut to open your homepage in the current tab in Google Chrome.
New Hotmail, MSN Hotmail, Windows Live Hotmail & Live email are all referring to the same free webmail service offered by Microsoft and Windows Live Team (works on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Mac OS X). Microsoft Corporation, Apple, and other companies own the copyright or trademark to these and other terms mentioned.