Hotmail Email Domains

Big Dan · Friday, September 14th, 2012

When signing up for a new Hotmail account you have the choice between four different domains for your new email address. You new Hotmail address can be:

@hotmail.com
@live.com
@outlook.com
@msn.com

With Hotmail being such a popular service this is very useful; Your nickname under @hotmail.com may be taken but you can probably get it under one of the newer domains (live.com or outlook.com). That's how I got bigdan@live.com.

Couple this with Hotmail's Aliases where you can add additional addresses that come right to your Hotmail inbox and you can secure all the nickname names you prefer.

foggy · Saturday, September 15th, 2012

Thanks, Dan !

FWIW, one can still (I believe) sign up for an msn.com domain name, as well, if one prefers that domain. From there, after signing in to one's account, aliases at the domains Big Dan lists above can be added to the account. This would mean that only the main account name/address would have the msn.com domain.

As far as I can tell, it's not possible to add an msn.com alias in any way (except the old-fashioned way of created several msn.com accounts and linking them together somehow – auto-forwarding, etc.).

Big Dan · Saturday, September 15th, 2012

	Quote:	foggy
	Thanks, Dan ! FWIW, one can still (I believe) sign up for an msn.com domain name, as well, if one prefers that domain. From there, after signing in to one's account, aliases at the domains Big Dan lists above can be added to the account. This would mean that only the main account name/address would have the msn.com domain. As far as I can tell, it's not possible to add an msn.com alias in any way (except the old-fashioned way of created several msn.com accounts and linking them together somehow – auto-forwarding, etc.).

Thanks Froggy. I added @msn.com to my original post.

popowich · Saturday, September 15th, 2012

If I'm remembering correctly msn.com was the domain associated with the old dial-up service. Things merge and change over time. Looks like they are trying to rebrand and get away from any negative perceptions associated with "Hotmail", and build on the fact they also have Outlook as their desktop email client that comes with Microsoft Office.

foggy · Saturday, September 15th, 2012

	Quote:	popowich
	If I'm remembering correctly msn.com was the domain associated with the old dial-up service. Things merge and change over time. Looks like they are trying to rebrand and get away from any negative perceptions associated with "Hotmail", and build on the fact they also have Outlook as their desktop email client that comes with Microsoft Office.

It's possible it could backfire (a little) when people see that the interface is nothing like the full-featured, very customizable, offline Office email client of the same name. But you're probably right – they're picking a(nother) new 'brand' name that has a more professional connotation than previous ones. But so far, underneath it all, it seems pretty much like the same ol' Hotmail in terms of its functionality.

Big Dan · Sunday, September 16th, 2012

MS is notorious for rebranding their wares. Remember MSN Messenger, the MSN search engine fell by the wayside and now it's Windows Live Messenger. MSN Search became Live Search, then something else, and now Bing.

As for the Outlook App vs. Outlook.com. I kind of look at the online tool as a scaled down version just like their Office web apps.

That being said it looks like MS is really trying to push their online Office Apps but I think Google has them beat like they do everywhere else on the web.

mike1977 · Monday, September 17th, 2012

	Quote:	foggy
	Thanks, Dan ! FWIW, one can still (I believe) sign up for an msn.com domain name, as well, if one prefers that domain. From there, after signing in to one's account, aliases at the domains Big Dan lists above can be added to the account. This would mean that only the main account name/address would have the msn.com domain. As far as I can tell, it's not possible to add an msn.com alias in any way (except the old-fashioned way of created several msn.com accounts and linking them together somehow – auto-forwarding, etc.).

Yeah...just like I don't why you can't choose the domain when making the Yahoo extra address, I don't know why they just don't add @msn as a choice instead of having to specifically sign up with that link.

foggy · Thursday, September 20th, 2012

	Quote:	foggy
	As far as I can tell, it's not possible to add an msn.com alias in any way (except the old-fashioned way of created several msn.com accounts and linking them together somehow – auto-forwarding, etc.).

Minor qualification: I think – if one really wanted an MSN alias badly enough – one could go through the process of creating a new MSN account (at the link above), then later change/rename it to the new Outlook. When that happens, the MSN address would change to an alias.

I realize not many (if any) people would go through all this just for a single MSN alias in what is actually a *new* Outlook/Live/Hotmail account. But I thought I'd mention it. (I haven't tried it to see if it works.)