Sign in to the Windows Live Hotmail Home page (instead of Inbox)
By default, when you login to your Hotmail account to check your emails, the Windows Live "Home" page will load, with a summary of new emails and other social networking features you may have configured for your profile. But this behavior can be customized, and you (or someone else) may have changed this setting to make Hotmail go directly to your inbox. This tutorial will explain how to revert to the original option, and make the Windows Live Hotmail homepage load instead of your inbox and emails.
Make the Hotmail Home page load when you sign in
Follow these steps to re-enable the default option for post-login landing page:
- First, if needed, sign in to your Hotmail account the usual way.
- Once you are inside your inbox, click on the "Options" menu near the top right corner of the screen, and choose "More options", as shown in the screenshot below:
- Hotmail will open the general options screen; from there, locate the section labeled "Customizing Hotmail", and click on the "Windows Live Home settings" link.
- The next screen will contain a couple of options called "Sign in to Hotmail", the first of which deals with the landing page you will see after you login to your account:
- Under the "Choose which page to display first when you sign in to Hotmail" header, you have two choices: if "Show me my inbox when I sign in" is checked, you will be automatically redirected to your email messages after a successful login session.
- If "Show me Windows Live Home after I sign in" is selected (the default setting), you will land on the Home page, and see a summary of everything that deals with your Windows Live profile, not just your Hotmail emails.
- Once you have customize your Hotmail sign in options, click on the "Save" button at the bottom, and your Windows Live will be updated immediately: the next time you login to your account, you will see the Home page instead of your inbox!
This is all it takes to configure your Windows Live Home page settings, and you can change one way or the other any time you want in the future.
Tip: note that your Hotmail homepage settings are tied to your email account and Windows Live profile, not the computer you happened to be using at the time. In other words, the new behavior will affect your login experience whenever you sign in to your account, regardless of the location or PC you are using!
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.