Synchronizing Outlook to Hotmail Accounts

Surprisingly those with Hotmail or Live accounts are unable to directly connect to Outlook, even though these are Microsoft products. To allow these accounts (including the newer outlook.com) accounts to communicate with Outlook the Outlook Hotmail connector needs to be installed.

The Microsoft Outlook Hotmail allows Microsoft Office Outlook 2003, 2007 or 2010 to access and manage Microsoft Windows Live Hotmail or Microsoft Office Live Mail accounts, including e-mail messages, contacts and calendars.

Outlook Hotmail Connector can:

• Read and send your Office Live Mail/Windows Live Hotmail e-mail messages.
• Manage contacts in Windows Live Hotmail.
• Use advanced options for blocking junk e-mail messages.
• Manage multiple e-mail accounts in one place.
• Manage, and synchronize multiple calendars, including shared calendars to Windows Live Calendar from Outlook.

Using the Outlook Hotmail Connector with Outlook 2010 gives these additional benefits:

• Safe Sender List/Blocked sender list/Safe Recipient lists are synchronized between Outlook and Hotmail.
• Hotmail account status appears in the Outlook status bar.
• Rules work with the Hotmail account in Outlook even if it’s not the primary account.

To install this download:

1. Download and save the Outlook Connector compatible with the Outlook program in use
   http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=24677 for the 32 bit version
   or
   http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=21305 for the 64 bit version (this is not available for Office 2003 or 2007)
   To find which version is required for Outlook 2010, open the Help screen. The information is located alongside the version number.      
   
2. Locate the downloaded file and double-click the OutlookConnector.exe program file to start the Setup program.
3. Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the installation.

How to use

Once installed, use Microsoft Office Outlook as normal.