Hotmail Sign in page
The Hotmail Sign-in page protects your Hotmail / Outlook.com account from access by other people: you will see the Hotmail sign in screen when you first login to check your emails from a web browser, and periodically after that, since Hotmail will automatically logout now and then for security reasons - this behind-the-scenes process is described in Hotmail login: it lets you re-enter your password and prevents others from loading your emails without your Hotmail login information (email address and password, one or both required by the sign in form).
The Hotmail sign in form
Follow these steps to sign in to your Hotmail / Outlook.com account and check your emails:
- First, open a new browser window and go to hotmail.com, live.com, or outlook.com - you can use any of these, they all belong to Microsoft and will load either the inbox of the last person to login, or the sign-in form (depends on time ellapsed since last login, and options used).
- If you do not see a sign in form that looks like the screenshot below (empty email address field and password), just click on the "Sign in with a different Windows Live ID" that will be displayed right below the sign in form: this will clear the text fields and let you login.
- Under the "Windows Live ID" text field, type your entire email address, both user name and domain: it should be something like email@hotmail.com or email@live.com.
- Under "Password", type your Hotmail account password: remember to enter it exactly as you chose it during Hotmail sign up, or the last time you change your Hotmail password: it is case-sensitive (uppercase letters are considered different from their lowercase version).
- Once you've entered your email address and password, you can check the "Keep me signed in" checkbox (pictured below), and Hotmail will store your preference inside a small text file on your computer (a "cookie") - this spares you from having to re-type your email address and password whenever you want to log into your email account (Note).
Caution: never use the "Keep me signed in" option on a public computer - someone could login to your Hotmail account! - Finally, click on the "Sign in" button to login to your Hotmail account with chosen options.
If you entered the correct login credentials, Windows Live Hotmail will sign you in and load your emails!
Tip: how you actually sign in to your Hotmail account from a web browser depends on location and the circumstances; make sure to read about Hotmail sign in from a public computer for security tips and safely login to your emails. On the other hand, you can Hotmail sign in automatically from your home computer!
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.