Review: Windows Live Hotmail Plus

Most if not all of us use E-mail as our center-point of communication. Be it work or personal e-mail is where we get newsletters, billing invoices and even the occasional spam. It's no wonder that companies are boasting enormous amounts of storage space to pull you into using their services. By doing this they're exposing you to their advertising platform and making money your e-mail. For most people (like myself) I've trained myself to ignore these ads and pay them no mind. For those of us who use Windows Live Hotmail there is a way out!

Signing up for Windows Live Hotmail Plus isn't the easiest thing in the world to find. With the price tag of $19.95/year you would think they would try to sell it a little more rather than hide it. The only way I was able to find it was by searching and found that the URL is http://get.live.com/mailplus/features.

Overview of features

After signing up one of the first features you'll probably notice is that there is no longer an ad at the top of your mail. Previously the Windows Live navigation bar would be right below an advertisement at the top of every page. I think for most people who have trained their eyes to ignore these advertisements that this is more of a bonus feature, though this certainly doesn't hurt.

The next thing that'll grab your attention is the fact that you now have 10 GB of storage for your e-mail and attachments. I imagine for the average user they would never see the end of this limit because by the time you make it even close I'm sure Microsoft will have raised the limit even more. Not only do you get 10 GB of storage but the size of attachments you can send is raised to 20 MB. This is quite an improvement since now you can send much larger files such as high-quality photo albums and even short movies.

There are also features that are added that aren't so apparent at first. My favorite feature is the fact that no longer will sent e-mail be appended with an advertisement at the bottom. For me this was what turned me off from using Windows Live Hotmail altogether. Another feature you may not notice unless you're looking for is the ability to sync with Outlook 2003/2007. That's right, for folks like me who like having everything in one place, now you can. In order to sync Outlook with Windows Live Hotmail all you need is a copy of Microsoft Outlook 2003 or 2007 and the Outlook connector which can be downloaded here. Be warned, you can only sync e-mail and contacts using Hotmail Plus. If you want to sync your Windows Live Calendar you will have to sign up with MSN Premium Internet Software which is $9.95/month.

Final thoughts

All in all I'd say for $19.95/year you can't beat the features that Windows Live Hotmail Plus offers you. If you have the money and can't decide whether or not to use it there is a 30-day money back guarantee offered with the service when you sign up. When you work it out though, it's only $1.66/month to sign up for this service. For the business and/or power uses it's quite worth it to be able to sync your mail and contacts up in Outlook.

Microsoft blogging

I've always tried to maintain a .NET Programming blog however I have a day job and do not always have the time to write code samples and such so now my plan to write reviews and blog about Microsoft's newest products so we'll see how that goes.