Phishing – what it is, and how it relates to your webmail credentials

Recently, the webmail industry experienced what was believed to be a phishing incident where several thousands of credentials from Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail accounts were exposed on a third-party site.

For those who are wondering exactly what phishing is, and how it relates to general spam: phishing  is a criminally fraudulent attempt to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy person or institution in e-mail or on a website. These credentials are used for identity theft, financial transactions and other potentially harmful activities. While “spam” refers to being targeted with unwanted emails in general (eg the common “Viagra ads”), phishing refers to attempts to obtain your webmail credentials and other identity with fraudulent intent. And unfortunately, it isn't anything new.

But thanks to coordinated efforts across the tech industry, and partnerships between industry players who are a part of the Anti-Phishing working group, over the years most web services, users and other applications have become smarter at spotting tricks like link manipulation, phone phishing, and forged websites. Cybercriminals have adapted to improved vigilance by focusing on the consumers as easier targets than battling technology.

Unfortunately, even technologically unsophisticated attacks can be successful because people traditionally underestimate the value of their online identities, and the gates that this information can open.

In most cases, this type of phishing attack is carried out by sending a simple e-mail that appears to be from someone you know. It might appear to be from the customer support department of Hotmail or another webmail provider, or it may even appear to come from a friend of yours (most likely, the message went to their entire contact list) and asks you to provide the credentials for your webmail service or it instructs you to click a link. Probably every one of us has seen an attack like this by now!

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Some of the most common types of phishing attacks

1. Attacks that rely on forging identities. In one of the most common types of attacks, the attackers change the name that is associated with an email address to a trusted, familiar name, like for example, “Windows Live Customer Support” or "Bank of America," even though their e-mail address still is "yourfriendlyspammer@live.com". If you're not paying attention, it can be easy to mistake a message like this for a genuine request from Windows Live or your bank.

2. Attacks that use stolen accounts. In a variant of phishing, the attacker uses a previously compromised user account to send a link to everyone in the contact list for that account. If you unknowingly click the link, you land on a spam, phishing, or malware download site. As you can imagine, an e-mail you get from a friend’s account significantly increases the credibility of that message, and increases the likelihood of a successful attack. So, watch out for odd or uncharacteristic e-mails that comes from a friend’s account.

3. Attacks that ask you to provide credentials via phone. In a typical phone phishing scam, the scammer may direct you to call a customer support phone number, claiming that your account will be closed or other problems will occur if you don't call the number. A person or an audio response unit waits to take your account number, personal identification number, password, or other valuable personal data.

4. Attacks via forged websites. Many phishing attacks will convince you to trust them by including official-looking logos or other identifying information taken directly from legitimate websites. A common trick is to create a web address that resembles the name of a well-known company but is slightly altered by adding, omitting, or transposing letters. For example, the address "www.microsoft.com" could appear instead as: “www.micosoft.com” OR “www.mircosoft.com” OR “www.verify-microsoft.com”

5. Attacks using social engineering. Sometimes a scammer will include convincing details about your personal life that they found on your social networking pages. It is easy for a user to think that they are getting an email from a friend wanting to reconnect and may inadvertently provide personal information.

Once the attackers have your credentials they typically use the account for various things:

· They can use your account to send more phishing or spam messages. These could go out to people on your contact list. The response rates to campaigns using stolen e-mail accounts to send the messages are far superior to traditional campaigns because of the inherent trust your contacts have for e-mail with your name on it. Or, your email ID could be used for broader spamming, since this allows them to counter abuse detection technology for a while.

· They can sell or use information from other accounts that you've linked to the stolen e-mail account. If you've used the same password for other financial services, merchant sites, and more, the impact could be very far reaching.

· They can sell it. The resale value of a legitimate web mail account like yours is $2 a pop on the black market—twice the amount they can get for a credit card.

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How Microsoft helps protect you from these attacks

From a technology perspective, because so much phishing comes as spam (unsolicited e-mail, which may or may not contain phishing), our Hotmail spam filter, called SmartScreen, blocks over 4 billion unwanted e-mail messages per day by distinguishing between legitimate e-mail and spam. To put these numbers in perspective, let us assume on one day our filters were less effective on 0.01% of the blocked spam that is phishing. This would result in about 400,000 additional phishing messages getting through to peoples' inboxes that day. And if the response rates for these phishing attempts were anywhere close to what happened in this recent Facebook incident, then about 32,000 people would be victimized by these phishing scams, during that one day. While not all of the spam that comes through Hotmail spam filters is phishing, and the actual number of users impacted per day is quite a bit lower than it would be without spam filters, these numbers illustrate the magnitude of the problem faced by our e-mail services every single day.

We also offer (as do many other online services) various layers of protection to detect attempts at stealing user credentials. For example, after x number of efforts to log in, we require additional authentication before providing a new password. This prevents guessing of passwords by anybody other than the owner of the account. This method works well, generally, because it is not suitable for any large scale attacks but is not infalliable. Guessing can work particularly effectively with systems that employ self-service password reset. For example, in September 2008, the Yahoo e-mail account of Governor of Alaska and Vice President of the United States nominee Sarah Palin was accessed without authorization by someone who was able to research answers to two of her security questions, her zip code and date of birth and was able to guess the third, where she met her husband.

Beyond SmartScreen, there are complementary technologies that are part of your browser like the Microsoft Smartscreen Filter which is free with Internet Explorer 8, which can help protect you from phishing attacks by identifying suspicious or confirmed phishing sites, and warning you before you open the page. We have implemented Extended Validation certificates and Windows Live sign-in assistant to ensure the safety of your login credentials. Plus, always remember that Microsoft will only ask for your Windows Live ID credential pair on login.live.com – nowhere else!

In general, it is a good idea to download the latest Windows updates and keep your third-party security applications up to date as well, to keep your PC safe.

Microsoft also works with law enforcement very closely. Microsoft has supported 191 enforcement actions against phishers worldwide.  Microsoft has filed civil lawsuits and has made referrals and provides support for civil and criminal actions filed by international government and law enforcement agencies.

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Protect yourself: Tips on recognizing phishing attacks

But no amount of technology can substitute for an alert user. Because we realize that the key is making you aware, we make significant investments every year in user education and other ways of helping to make you aware of how to combat these attacks.

One thing you'll notice in Hotmail is that we provide several visual cues to help you detect and prevent problems. Going back to the first example we used, you can see that the safety bar at the top of the message indicates that the content might be unsafe.

We also make an effort to warn you when you may not know the sender:

Aside from the few cases when you communicate with a contact or another service for the first time, most mail you receive comes from known senders, that is, someone in your contact list or on your safe list. An unknown sender is a very important clue, telling you to use caution before interacting with the message or the sender.

You should also always look carefully at the "From" address:

The initial name shown in bold can be misleading; look for the e-mail address that is associated with it: yourfriendlyspammer@live.com (or more typically, you'll see random strings of letters and numbers in an e-mail address, like abcxxxx123@live.com).

Pay close attention before giving valuable information away to an e-mail address like this. Note that sometimes the address itself has been disguised to look legitimate, but when you click Reply, look at the destination address. Is it the same address as the one that sent the e-mail? If different, is it another suspiciously spam-like address?

You can find more cues in the message itself. Look for claims that are outlandish (for example, that you just won money in a lottery in another country!) or things that just make no common sense.

Microsoft will never ask you to verify your password or to provide it to us via e-mail. I just can’t reinforce this enough! We would never, ever ask for this information, period. The only time you should enter your password is on an official Windows Live ID sign-in page. So no matter why they say they need such information, please never provide your credentials over e-mail, in IM, or on a forum. Sometimes the justification provided can look downright silly, for example:

Really! Would we be running the largest email service on the planet if we had "congestion problems" that prevented us from being able to host your account anymore? And if we needed you to confirm your account, we would ask you to sign in to the service, not have you send us an e-mail containing your password.

The cases that are harder to detect are the ones where one of your friends' accounts has been compromised and the attacker is now hiding behind your friend's identity. That scenario also makes it difficult for the e-mail service to give you many visual cues to alert you, because to our spam filters, the message looks like part of an established, trusted relationship between the receiver and the sender. In these cases, be on the lookout for outlandish claims. Does the message sound like something your friend wouldn't usually say? If anything looks odd or uncharacteristic of your friend, the safe thing is to call up your friend and ask them (rather than replying to the sender, who may not really be your friend). You might indeed be helping your friend by letting them know that somebody has taken over their account.

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Here’s how YOU can help Microsoft fight phishing

Reporting spam and phishing messages helps Microsoft detect and prevent this and future attacks from making it to users inboxes. Even if this is from a friend of yours please do report because the intent is not to penalize the compromised sender but to protect the user base. The following graphic demonstrates how to report:

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What to do if you become the victim of a phishing attack

Let’s say you did your best, the technology did its best, and you still find that your credentials were compromised one way or the other. It happens to best of us – don’t panic.

Follow the steps outlined here to reclaim your account, and then take appropriate steps to ensure the safety of your other e-mail accounts, banking, credit card information, etc.

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Hopefully, these tips will make your online experience safer. Protecting users is our number one goal and with educated users on our side, the ecosystem is better equipped to tackle challenges like spam and phishing.

Best,

Krish Vitaldevara
Windows Live Hotmail team

The Windows 7 launch is a proud moment for us at Windows Live. Windows Live delivers the software and services that make your new, or upgraded, Windows 7 PC lots of fun. So, we want to remind you to get the latest and greatest of Windows Live for your new Windows 7 PC!

We recommend the following top things to do after installing Windows 7:

1. Personalize your PC: Make your Windows 7 PC your own by pinning your favorite programs to the enhanced Windows Taskbar, to easily preview and switch between Windows. Then, customize your desktop with one of the many new themes available in Windows 7 (or easily download a new one that suits your personality), and drag your favorite gadgets where you want them on your desktop.

2. Download Windows Live Essentials – the killer apps for Windows 7: Once you have Windows 7 installed, go to download.live.com to download free programs for email, IM, movie-making, photos and more! 

3. Organize your multiple email accounts in one place: Organize your multiple email accounts using Window Live Mail (including Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail Plus and Gmail) so you can receive email in one place, organized into separate folders. You can even add RSS feeds to stay up on your favorite sites and blogs.

4. Import and organize your photos: Your new operating system is a great excuse to finally organize the thousands of digital photos you’ve accumulated over the years. Windows Live Photo Gallery allows you to sort your photos easily by tags, folders or dates, then clean them up with easy editing features, including auto-fix, sharpen image, panoramic stitch, and more.

5. Make a movie in less than five minutes: Now that you have your favorite photo and video memories on your Windows 7 PC, make them into movies and slideshows that you can share on the web (including easy publishing to YouTube and Facebook) or burn onto a DVD in high definition (if your camera supports it). Windows Live Movie Maker features the simple-to-navigate Windows 7 ribbon, and time-saving features like AutoMovie that automatically turn your photos, videos and music into an impressive movie – complete with titles and transitions.

6. Snap to it! Need to compare two documents side-by-side? Snap, a new feature in Windows 7, is a quick (and fun) way to increase your productivity. Snap allows you to resize open windows simply by dragging them to the edges of your screen – left or right. Then, the window will expand vertically and fill the screen, so you can easily position windows side-by-side.

7. Shake away the clutter: Need to cut through a crowded desktop and quickly focus on a single window? With Windows 7, you can click a pane and give your mouse a shake. Voila! Every window except that one disappears. Jiggle again, and your Windows are back.

Have fun with Windows 7  :-)

- The Windows Live Team

On September 8^th, President Obama announced his Back to School challenge – the “I Am What I Learn” video contest for students. The President is asking students to create videos describing what they can do to improve their education, and the role education will play in fulfilling their dreams.

Let Windows Live help you tell that story. Windows Live Movie Maker is a powerful free video editing application from Microsoft, which is a part of Windows Live Essentials, that can help you quickly create and easily share your videos. Get up and running in minutes using content from the most popular types of cameras, camcorders, and webcams; and be able to share your video across a wide range of media.

The video posted below showcases some of the visual effects you could add to your movie easily by using Movie Maker

We put together a little step-by-step guide to help you create that awesome video!

With a webcam:

1. Most webcams come with software that allows you to capture/record video from your webcam to your computer. Using this software, record your story.

2. Once you capture your story on video using your webcam. Save the file to a folder on your hard drive.

With a camcorder or camera that records video:

1. Set up the camcorder/camera – record your story

2. Plug your camcorder/camera to your computer, import your files to a folder on your hard drive using a free application such as Windows Live Photo Gallery (a part of the same suite of software that Movie Maker is a member of).

Then make your movie!

3. With Movie Maker open, click on the Add Videos and Photos button or click on the Storyboard pane in the application to open up the explorer window. Find your recently captured video and click Open.

4. With the content in your project, you can now easily edit your video:

a. To trim a clip – select the video clip you want to edit, click Video Tools -> Trim Tools -> and use the Trim Bars on either side of the preview bar to find the exact spot in the clip you want to trim to.

b. Add a Transition between clips – select the clip you want to transition to, click Animations in the Ribbon toolbar, preview the animations before you apply them simply by hovering your mouse over the different effects, when you’re ready to apply the effect -> simply click on the animation and it’s added to your content. You can do this for as many or as few pieces of content as you wish.

c. Add a Visual Effect – similar to adding a Transition, select the clip you want to add a visual effect to, click on the Visual Effects tab in the Ribbon toolbar, hover your mouse over the different effects to preview what it would look like when added to your content, then simply click on the transition to add it.

d. Add a soundtrack – With your content organized in your project, you can add a soundtrack simply by clicking on the Music Note in the Ribbon Toolbar under the Home Tab. Once you click on the Music Note, an explorer window will open allowing you to select the music you would like to add. Once you found the song, click open and it is automatically added to your project. From here, you can fine tune the placement of the song (for example, have it start after the dramatic opening of your of your speech, or announce your movie with a rocking soundtrack that fades out as you begin your story). To fine tune the song, start by dragging the song across your content in the Storyboard to where you would like it to start. Just like editing video, you can also split and trim your soundtrack to fit your movie perfectly.

e. Use photos as transitions – a very cool effect to move from video clip to video clip is the use of photos as a transition. When you have two video clips next to each other without a transition, the result can look mediocre – but add a transition between the two and instantly your video looks more professional. Then take it to the next level by getting creative with the transitions used, for example; in a video clip of a speech talking about what you would like to see happen in the near future, use a photo as a symbol and transition to help better tell the story. To add this, simply find the spot in your video where you want to add this photo -> click Video Tools -> Split (which will split your video into two parts at that point) -> then insert the photo at the split either by dragging the photo to that point, or clicking Add Videos and Photos from the Ribbon toolbar and adding it separately. Once inserted, you can change the duration of time that the photo is shown by clicking on the edit tab and selecting an amount of time from the Duration drop down menu. Now add the final touches, adding a transition animation to the photo and the two video clips will really give some polish to your movie. Click on the Animations Tab, select your content – preview the transition animations until you find the one you want to add -> select the animation by clicking on it -> and be sure to do this for each piece of content (you can shortcut this by selecting all [Ctrl+A] or clicking and dragging your mouse over all the content and selecting an animation, this will apply it to all selected content – which is called Batch Editing).

You can follow the guide above, or, better still, you can use the resources posted below. These are links to videos that demo how to use Movie Maker. You will be a pro in no time!

- Introduction to Windows Live Movie Maker

- Create movies easily

- Easily share your movies

We hope you will have fun working on the Obama challenge. Don’t forget to earn some good karma by telling your friends about Movie Maker!

- The Windows Live Team

Some of you may have noticed that lately, you can no longer add photos directly into the body of a Windows Live Hotmail message the way you used to do. The Windows Live team is constantly reviewing Hotmail to ensure quality service to our customers. During a recent review, we identified an incompatibility with Internet Explorer that raised a potential security concern with photo uploads, and we made the decision to temporarily remove the feature.

The Hotmail team takes security very seriously and we expect to bring back the photo upload feature by the end of September. In the meantime, you can still add pictures as attachments to your Hotmail messages, by clicking Attach, and then File, and then selecting the picture you want to include.

We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause you until this fix is complete.

The Windows Live team

Hi – I’m Ann and I design stuff in the social networking area of Windows Live. One of the things I love about Windows Live is the variety of settings you can change to suit your preferences. You can pick different layouts and themes, what kind of content you want to see, and how you want to be contacted.

Earlier I wrote a blog entry on how to decide who can see your stuff on Windows Live, but this entry is devoted to deciding who can send you invitations or private messages, or ask to see your space. You may be getting contacted by people you don’t know (and don’t want to know!). It’s really easy to stop the insanity.

How to change who can contact you

1. Go to your general options page. You can get there from the options dropdown on your homepage or profile. Click Options, and then click More options.
   
2. On the general options page, in the Notifications section, click Communications preferences.
3. Use the dropdown menus to set who can contact you. The different choices are:
• Anyone – this means anyone on the Internet can contact you
• People in your network - these are the people on your profile, in Messenger, or both
• People in your extended network - these are the people connected with the people in your network (you can think of them as “friends of your friends”)
• No one
4. If you make any changes, be sure to click Save.

How I decided on my settings

There are benefits and drawbacks to each of these settings, depending on your perspective. For “Who can invite you to their network?” I chose “People in your extended network.”

That means only people who know my friends can invite me to be friends. This seems reasonable but doesn’t account for long-lost friends who might Bing me and want to be friends but don’t know anyone I’m currently connected to. I’ve decided that’s ok because, for sending private messages, I chose “Anyone.” I have it set to “Anyone” because sometimes people read my blog and want to comment privately about something I wrote and I want them to be able to do that.

However, using the extended network setting is only as good as your network is choosy! One of my friends, Chris, has 873 friends! Now, I know he doesn’t know 873 people – he’s just accepting every invitation he receives, so some of them might be spammers. That means all of those people can send me invitations, which some of them do. For now, I’m living with it, and Chris gets a ribbing from all of us at every opportunity.

The remaining option is for space access requests, which are irrelevant for me since my space is public. Your space may not be public, so this setting might be valuable to you.

So that’s how you set who can contact you. If you have any comments or suggestions, please send us feedback.

- Ann, Social Media UX
  Windows Live team

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Unfortunately, we’ve had to temporarily block reader comments due to the volume of recent comments that violate our code of conduct. If you have feedback, now as always, we're listening. Please use the following links to send us feedback or get help.
Send us feedback | Get help with Windows Live | Get help with Hotmail | Get help from Microsoft Support

If you have a family and you worry about keeping them safer online, Windows Live Family Safety can help you do that. If you’re just getting started using Family Safety, or you’ve already been using it for awhile, there’s a terrific article on the Windows Help and How-to site called Staying safer online. In it, Gloria Boyer from the Windows team tells the story of how she set up Family Safety for her sister’s household.

When Gloria set up her sister’s computer she created separate Windows accounts for each family member.  Family Safety works better with separate user accounts (because parents can view reports about the sites each child visits). Plus, this means that each person can also:

• Customize their desktop: Little kids can set a picture of their favorite cartoon character as their desktop background; the older kids can use a picture of their favorite band.
• Set up their own Start menu and taskbar.
• Set their own Internet favorites. Parents’ money management websites won’t appear on the kids’ Favorites lists, and CartoonNetwork.com won’t be on the parents’ lists.

If your family’s used to using just one account, it might sound like a big deal to ask everyone to use separate accounts and passwords.  But there are a few ways to make switching between accounts easier for your family:

• When you leave the computer, lock it using this quick keyboard shortcut: Hold down the Windows key and press the L key.
• Use Fast User Switching so you can switch right to a different account without logging off, which would close down your work.
• Or log off by clicking the Windows Start button, pointing to the arrow next to the Lock icon, and then clicking Log Off.

The next person who wants to use the computer is then free to log on with their own user name and password, and all of their desktop settings and favorites will be just where they left them.

How does all this locking and switching work with Family Safety? Great!  When you switch to a different Windows account, you are still signed in to the Family Safety Filter, no more signing in and out. That’s one less thing to do, and when you have a family to take care of, you have more than enough to do!

-Sylvia French
Windows Live Team

Comments policy
Unfortunately, we’ve had to temporarily block reader comments due to the volume of recent comments that violate our code of conduct. If you have feedback, now as always, we're listening. Please use the following links to send us feedback or get help.
Send us feedback | Get help with Windows Live | Get help with Hotmail | Get help from Microsoft Support

We’ve been seeing a few questions from people about the Facebook web activity in Windows Live. Here are a few answers and tips for you.

Q. When I add the Facebook web activity, which types of Facebook updates will come over to Windows Live?

Depending on your privacy settings in Facebook, you may see updates about your status messages, photos, videos, links, and notes (but not your comments on those items).

Q. I added the Facebook web activity. Why don’t I see Facebook updates from my friends on Windows Live Home?

You’ll only see Facebook updates from people in your Windows Live network who’ve also added the Facebook web activity. The Facebook web activity, like all web activities on Windows Live, is a way to push information about what you have done on other websites out to the people in your network, not to pull in information about your friends’ activities. Updates about your activities appear on your Windows Live Profile; people in your network will also see news about your Facebook updates in their view of Windows Live Home.

Q. I wasn’t able to add Facebook as a web activity. I keep seeing the same error, saying that Windows Live can’t add this web activity, or can’t get my information from Facebook right now. What’s the problem?

This web activity is working for most people, but a limited number of customers have hit this issue. We’re working to isolate and fix this as soon as possible. If you are one of the unlucky ones who can’t add Facebook yet, we apologize for the delay.

Q. I added the Facebook web activity, but I don’t see all of my Facebook updates on my profile.

Give it a little time. How long depends on several factors, but it typically takes about an hour for Facebook updates to appear on your Windows Live Profile.

If you’ve already waited awhile, and you still don’t see any updates, the problem probably lies with your privacy settings on Facebook. Facebook doesn’t currently allow us to share certain information with Windows Live users unless you are using the default privacy settings on Facebook (“Everyone” for notes, photos, and videos; “My Networks and Friends” for status and links).  If you’ve never changed any privacy settings on Facebook, then you shouldn’t have a problem. But if you have restricted access to some of these items, then they may not come over to Windows Live. To ensure your Facebook privacy settings will work with the Facebook web activity on Windows Live, here’s what to do:

For status and links:

1. On Facebook, point your mouse at Settings, and then click Privacy Settings. 
2. Click Profile.
3. Look for “Status and Links,” and set that to either “My Networks and Friends” or “Everyone.”

For notes:

1. On Facebook, point your mouse at Settings, and then click Application Settings. 
2. Next to Notes, click Edit Settings.
3. Under “Who can see your Notes?” select “Everyone.”
4. Or, if you don’t want to set ALL notes to Everyone, you can change settings for a particular note only. When publishing the new note, set the privacy setting for the new note to “Everyone.”

For photos and videos:

1. On Facebook, point your mouse at Settings, and then click Application Settings. 
2. Next to Photos, click Edit Settings.
3. Set this to “Everyone.”
4. Or, if you’d like to restrict access to most albums, but you want to share a particular album on Windows Live, go to your albums page, click “Album Privacy,” and set each album you want to share to “Everyone.”
5. When uploading a new video to Facebook, set the privacy settings for that video to “Everyone.”

I hope this is helpful. Please let us know if you have any more questions about web activities!

- Antonia
  Windows Live team

Comments policy

Unfortunately, we’ve had to temporarily block reader comments due to the volume of recent comments that violate our code of conduct. If you have feedback, now as always, we're listening. Please use the following links to send us comments or get help.

Send us feedback about Windows Live products
Get help with Windows Live questions
Get help with Hotmail questions
Get help from Microsoft Support

Trying to find friends or family that you’ve lost contact with? Wondering who else you might know on Windows Live? Searching for people on Windows Live has improved a bit lately. For one thing, when you search from any Spaces, Home, or Profile page, you’ll immediately see search results from your contact list appear in a dropdown list, even before you finish typing their name. Just click the name of the contact you want, and you’ll go right to that person’s profile.

Search results from your contact list appear as you type

If they’re not in your contact list, instead of clicking a name in the dropdown, click Search people, or hit Enter on your keyboard.  If there are any matches, they’ll be listed on the page.

Here are a few tips to help you find the people you’re looking for.

• Narrow your search by clicking Advanced. Fill in any of the fields, and then run another search. Choices include first name, last name, interests, gender, age range, location, and work.
• The advanced search terms are quite precise, so be careful not to limit your search with too many of these. For example, if you search for a friend with the location “New York” but they wrote “Manhattan” as their location, they won’t appear in search results. If you get no results, try removing some of the advanced search terms.
• If you’ve found the person you’re looking for, click Add to invite them to be in your network. Or just send them a private message.

By default, your last name isn’t available to the public on your profile, but if you decide to make it public, you’ll make it easier for friends or old classmates who want to look you up to find you and leave you a note or invite you to their network.

To make your last name public, go to the page where you change your name (either click your picture in the upper-right hand corner and select Change name, or go to your profile details page and click Edit in the name section.) Then type in your name as you want it to appear across Windows Live, including your last name, select the check box right below your last name, and click Save.

Select the check box under you last name—people will see you’re on Windows Live and you can rekindle those old friendships.

Setting your last name to public lets people know you’re here on Windows Live and gives them the opportunity to connect with you. But rest assured that it doesn’t mean that everyone can see all the information on your profile—you always control the permissions for all of your info on Windows Live (like contact info, photos, personal message, etc.). Visitors to your profile generally see less info than you do when you view your own profile. Any information (or photos, or blogs) that you aren’t comfortable with sharing publicly, can be set to share with only the people you choose. Check out our earlier blog post about your privacy and permissions in Windows Live, or just go to the main permissions page and check your settings there.

Good luck with your searches—I hope you’re able to find some people to reconnect with, share some old memories, and make some new ones.

- Todd Colfelt
  Windows Live team 

Comments policy

Unfortunately, we’ve had to temporarily block reader comments due to the volume of recent comments that violate our code of conduct. If you have feedback, now as always, we're listening. Please use the following links to send us comments or get help.

Send us feedback about Windows Live products
Get help with Windows Live questions
Get help with Hotmail questions
Get help from Microsoft Support

Judging by comments I’ve seen here on the blog, some of you have received random links in offline messages in Messenger. The links appear to come from your friends, but when you click them, they go to something unexpected or unsavory.

Unfortunately, this is a worm. When you click such a link, not only do you go to a site that your friend didn’t send you, and that you probably do NOT want to see, but the worm can also get into your Messenger, and send similar IMs to everyone in your contact list, thus keeping the chain going. Sneaky, eh? If you think you may have clicked a link like this in the past, run a free full-PC scan to help ensure that your PC has not been infected. 

And don’t click any links in Messenger unless you are 100% sure that your friend intended to send you those links.

Here is a great blog post about this worm, on Jonathan Kay’s Messenger Geek blog: How to avoid a phishing worm on Messenger and what to do if you've been affected.

- Antonia

   Windows Live Team

Hi, I’m Kaarin, and I’m a writer on the Windows Live team. I love my day job, but I don’t exactly save lives every day at work, so I try to do my part in other ways to make the world a better place. Here are a few quick and easy ways I use Windows Live to support charitable causes.

The i’m initiative

Whenever I send someone an IM in Windows Live Messenger or an e-mail message in Windows Live Hotmail, Microsoft donates money to the cause I selected (UNICEF). One of the nicest benefits I get from working at Microsoft is that the company matches my charitable donations and volunteer time. The i’m initiative is even easier—it’s free money. If one of the many causes in the i’m initiative has your heart, download a panel for your blog, the theme pack for Messenger, and a button or banner to add to your e-mail signature.

Search and Give

Another source of free money is Search and Give from Live Search. You can select a cause from over 800,000 non-profit organizations and 100,000 K-12 schools in the U.S. Then you can set Search and Give as your home page or your default search engine. Every time you search, Microsoft donates 1 cent to your cause. It may not sound like much, but it adds up, particularly if you get the word out and all your friends start using Search and Give for their searches, too. To earn more for your charity or school, you can even play fun free games on Live Search Club. One of my favorite ways to waste time!

At this time, the i’m initiative and Search and Give are available to people living in the 50 United States and the District of Columbia. Let’s say you live somewhere else, or your cause isn’t part of the i’m initiative. All is not lost. There are lots of other ways to use Windows Live to raise awareness for your favorite cause.

Add a signature in Hotmail

You never quite know how many people your e-mail messages reach, especially if you like to forward stories, jokes, and such. Your signature is a great way to spread the word about your favorite cause.

1. Go to Windows Live Hotmail, click Options, and then click More options.
2. Under Customize your mail, click Personal e-mail signature.
3. Describe your cause (adding links if you want), and then click Save.

Add a signature in Windows Live Mail

1. Open Windows Live Mail, click Tools, click Options, and then click the Signatures tab.
2. Select the Add signatures to all outgoing messages check box.
3. Click New.
4. Under Edit Signature, click Text.
5. Describe your cause (adding links if you want), and then click OK.

Share the website of your favorite cause

If you have a blog or space on Windows Live, make sure to share the website for your cause there, too. And make the webpage a shared favorite on Windows Live by clicking the Share button on Windows Live Toolbar. When you add the favorite, it appears on your What’s new list for everyone in your network to see.

Customize your display picture and personal message

You can state your cause (and even include a link) in the personal message you show in Messenger and on your profile page. You can even use your display picture to illustrate your cause. You can change both of these from your profile details page.

Create a volunteering group

I want to instill the value of community service in my preschooler, so I’m setting up a group of other moms in my neighborhood who have young kids. Then, I plan to create a calendar with a volunteer event for each month. Some months, we’ll pick up litter in our neighborhood, others we can go door-to-door to collect food for the local food bank. We’ll see how it goes!

If you like these ideas, please spread the word!

- Kaarin

Windows Live team

We have been getting frequent comments lately from readers of this blog who’ve received a suspicious e-mail message asking for their password and other personal information and claiming to be from the Hotmail or Windows Live team. It says that their account will be closed unless they reply with this information within 24 hours, 2 weeks, or something similar.

If it looks anything like the e-mail below, then yes, it is a scam! Please don’t reply or click any of the links. Your account will not be closed. 

Here is a sample of this fake e-mail notification (there are several similar variations being circulated):

Dear Account User

CONFIRM YOUR WINDOWS LIVE ACCOUNT SERVICES. VERIFY YOUR FREE HOTMAIL ACCOUNT NOW !!!

This Email is from Hotmail Customer Care and we are sending it to every Hotmail Email User Accounts Owner for safety. we are having congestions due to the anonymous registration of Hotmail accounts so we are shutting down some Hotmail accounts and your account was among those to be deleted. We are sending this email to you so that you can verify and let us know if you still want to use this account. If you are still interested please confirm your account by filling the space below.Your User name, password, date of birth and your country information would be needed to verify your account.

Due to the congestion in all Hotmail users and removal of all unused Hotmail Accounts, Hotmail would be shutting down all unused Accounts, You will have to confirm your E-mail by filling out your Login Information below after clicking the reply button, or your account will be suspended within 24 hours for security reasons.

* Username:
* Password: 
* Date of Birth:
* Country Or Territory: 

After following the instructions in the sheet, your account will not be interrupted and will continue as normal. Thanks for your attention to this request. We apologize for any inconveniences.

Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his/her account after two weeks of receiving this warning will lose his or her account permanently.

Sincerely,
The Windows Live Hotmail Team

Spot other scams

There are a lot of other e-mail scams out there. How can you tell if an e-mail is legitimate?  Most e-mail scams have a few telltale signs that can help you spot them.

1. It sounds too good (or bad) to be true. It probably is a scam.  This is a rule of thumb that applies to almost every e-mail scam out there.
2. It asks for your personal information. Microsoft will never ask you to provide your username, password, date of birth, country, credit card information, etc. via e-mail. Never enter your password anywhere besides the official Windows Live ID sign-in page.
3. It looks unprofessional. Telltale signs are incorrect English grammar, random capitalization of words in the middle of a sentence, like “Email User Accounts Owner,” or graphic images that don’t match those shown on the official website of the company referred to in the message.
4. It’s urgent. Scammers want you to feel that you need to make a decision quickly, so that you won’t have time to research the legitimacy of the message.
5. It promises you free money. You’ve supposedly won money in a foreign lottery, or there is unclaimed money from an inheritance due to you. If you didn’t enter that lottery, or aren’t related to the person the message says you’ve inherited money from, it’s probably a scam.
6. The “From” name doesn’t match the actual e-mail address. This is not the case for every e-mail scam, but when it occurs, it is a pretty sure sign. For example, it may say it is from the “Microsoft Promotion Team”, but if you look at the e-mail address, it came from somebody @ example.com or another completely unrelated address.
7. It looks like it’s from real friend of yours, and asks for money. If your friend has fallen for a phishing scam, someone may have taken over their e-mail account and is now trying to get cash from everyone in their contact list, including you. This is what phishing scams are all about. If the story doesn’t sound like your friend, or if you aren’t sure, call your friend (don’t e-mail them) before you do anything else.

What should you do?

If you receive a message that you suspect of being a scam, here’s what to do.

1. Investigate it.

• Check for similar e-mail scams listed on http://windowslivehelp.com/solutions/safety/default.aspx
• Check for similar scams listed on http://www.snopes.com
• Never click a link within the e-mail. Instead, search for the website of the company that it claims to be from, and then contact their customer service reps to verify the validity of the e-mail. Or if it claims to be from a friend of yours, call your friend and ask.

2. Report it.

• In Hotmail, click Junk, or better yet, click Mark as, and then click Phishing scam.
• If you want to provide more details to Hotmail, send a message to abuse@hotmail.com.
• If the scam claims to be from another known and legitimate company, contact that company to inform them of the scam (but don’t click any links in the e-mail… see the last point under “Investigate it”).

3. Protect yourself and your computer.

• If you think someone has accessed or stolen your Hotmail account, if the Windows Live ID sign-in page looks fraudulent, or if you receive an e-mail that tries to confirm a password change you didn’t authorize, please follow these steps from the Hotmail Support team. (Updated March 17, 2009)
• Help ensure that your PC has not been infected with a virus or malware by running a free full-PC scan.

Look out for these scams, too

Here are some more scams that are going around, all researched and explained on Snopes.com, which is a terrific resource for this sort of thing:

• Ebay account suspension notices that ask you to verify your account information.
• Paypal needs you to resubmit your credit card and bank account information.
• A fee will be charged for Hotmail.
• Get cash or other free items from Microsoft or other companies for forwarding an e-mail.
• Internet petition to keep Messenger a free service.
• Medical appeals usually involving injured or sick children.

For more info, see this article on the 5 most common types of e-mail scams or this one on protecting your identity online.

Stay safe!

Antonia
(From the real Windows Live team)

If you haven't tried creating a panorama using the panoramic stitch feature in Windows Live Photo Gallery, you should. What this feature does with a series of photos is nothing short of amazing.

The panoramic feature in Photo Gallery “stitches” together a series of photos to create a large composite. To do this, Photo Gallery looks for similar patterns in a series of photos that appear to match up, and combines them. Most of the time you can predict what the resulting stitch will look like, however occasionally you’re rewarded with something unexpected, surreal and sometimes oddly beautiful.

I really like how Photo Gallery distorts and mangles pixels to make a panorama. Photo Gallery doesn’t know or care how the finished photo will look, it just connects the photos the best it can based on its internal algorithm. Because a photographer’s vantage point is never perfectly aligned with each photo in a series, Photo Gallery has to curve lines and create gradations to join up elements in each photo.

This panoramic gives Amsterdam an even more woozy quality.

Notice how the transitions between sky and water aren’t perfect and the odd curved quality of the composite? This is because of the slightly different vantage point, lighting and shutter speed my camera used for each shot in the series.

My photographic style involves leaving my camera on “automatic” and quickly taking more photos than I ever plan to keep. I’m more interested in capturing a moment, the point of view and in the composition of a photo than fiddling with shutter speed, lenses and other technical stuff. This means I end up throwing a lot of photos away. Probably more than I keep. I still end up with tons of photos and some pretty interesting ones that I wouldn’t have otherwise. Using Photo Gallery’s tagging and organizational features makes sorting the ones worth keeping pretty quick and easy.

Horizons and perspective

When stitching together photos, Photo Gallery looks for patterns to connect. Those patterns don’t have to be aligned across a horizon. Try taking a grouping of photos vertically as well as horizontally. If there is enough overlap between the photos, Photo Gallery will connect them. Take a look at this example of 12 horizontal and vertical photos I’ve stitched together:

Don’t try using this fire escape in a hurry.

A wide angle lens effect

As interesting as it is to join dozens of photos together to create a panorama, consider connecting just a few to create the illusion of a wide angle lens. Here are a few photos of my dogs in the Redwood National Park. Notice how the first photo in the series doesn’t include the dogs? That’s because I (sorta) used the rule of thirds in composing it.

Now those same photos stitched together and cleaned up with a little cropping:

Ah, isn’t that the sweetest?

Photo Gallery generally recognizes and eliminates redundant things in photos and eliminates them.

Fake out Photo Gallery

Another interesting experiment is to fool Photo Gallery into creating scenes that don't really exist. Here’s a panorama I created by stitching together a couple separate panoramas and including a third photo afterward:

Looks a little like a 70’s department store portrait, huh?

Here are the composites I stitched together to get this weirdness:

If you get an error that says Photo Gallery can’t stitch together your photos because they don’t match closely enough, don’t give up. Sometimes you can correct the problem with careful cropping, or a slight contrast, exposure, or color adjustment. Start with a small selection of the photos that you intend to stitch together, and work your way up until you isolate the issue.

Sometimes things go pleasantly wrong

Sometimes Photo Gallery gives up trying to stitch together photos and returns an error, other times it bungles the job in pretty terrific ways. In this panoramic stitch of my living room, Photo Gallery recognizes that these photos belong together, but it can’t figure out how. Its algorithm doesn't seem to account for gravity.

Behold. A room that Dali would approve of.

No matter how you use Photo Gallery, it's got lots of features that you can use to make your photos look better — or at least more interesting. Because taking digital photos is essentially free, and editing photos in Photo Gallery is risk-free (you can always revert back to the original, even after you save changes), I take tons more photos and have more fun experimenting and being creative with them. If I don't like the way a photo turns out, I either undo my changes and try again, or if the photo doesn't continue to hold my interest, I just throw it away.

Check out this fun video showing how easy it is to create a panoramic stitch.

- Brad Wright
  The Windows Live team

Technorati Tags: how-to,Windows Live,Photo,Photo Gallery,panorama,Live,photos,panoramic

Windows Live Tags: how-to,story,clubhouse,Windows Live,Photo,Photo Gallery,panorama,Live,photos,panoramic

Hi, my name is David and I’m a Program Manager for Windows Live Calendar. The service has infinite cool uses, but did you know that it can help lower your gasoline/petrol bill, help save the planet, and decrease roadway traffic? It’s true! You can easily use Calendar to coordinate a car or vanpool. In fact, some of our own team members are doing that right now. It’s simple. Here’s how:

Create a carpool calendar

1. Go to http://calendar.live.com and sign in with your Windows Live ID or create one if you haven’t already.
2. Click New, and then click Calendar.
   
    
3. Enter the name and information about your new calendar—I’ll call mine “Carpool Calendar” for simplicity—and click Edit sharing.
   
    
4. Save your calendar and select Share this calendar.
5. Decide which carpoolers can see to-dos, add all the people in your carpool, and decide what you want each person to be able to view and do in the calendar. We like to give everyone in the carpool “View, edit, and delete items” permissions so that everyone in the carpool can quickly update the calendar if their plans change. 
   
    
6. Click Save.
   

Using the carpool calendar

The new calendar appears in your calendar list on the left side of your page. To show only that calendar, select the colored box next to its name.

Everyone you added to your calendar is sent an invitation to join. It may take a few minutes for them to get the e-mail message. Your fellow carpoolers simply click Accept in the e-mail invitation and sign in with their Windows Live IDs (or create a Windows Live ID if they don’t have one). They will now see the new Carpool Calendar in their lists, as well!

Quick tip—it’s a good idea to select Receive a daily e-mail schedule for this calendar so that each morning you will know who is planning to ride that day. The e-mail reminder is sent at 4 AM each day, so you’ll have it in time. It’s a good idea to go to http://alerts.live.com as well, to make sure all of your alerts for the calendar and for Windows Live will be delivered as you’d like them to be.

Ask everyone to update the calendar on a weekly or daily basis with the days they will be riding. They just need to click New, click Event, and add the details and recurrence information, making sure to select the name of the carpool calendar in the Calendar box.

That’s it! And carpools are only the start of it—just imagine what else you can organize in your everyday life using Windows Live Calendar! It’s especially powerful as a tool for family calendaring. Coordinating your kids’ schedules is a breeze. We’d love to hear how you use Windows Live Calendar and to get your suggestions for making it even more practical and powerful in the future.

Happy commuting!

- David & The Windows Live Team

We’ve heard that a small number of you are experiencing audio and video problems with your webcam after installing the latest version of Windows Live Messenger. After looking into this, we found that for users who are seeing error code 0x8AC70013 or 0x8AC70202, this may be caused by an incompatibility with McAfee Site Advisor.

McAfee is working on a patch to fix this, but until it becomes available, if you’re having audio or video problems with the new version of Messenger and are running McAfee, McAfee has posted a workaround on its website at: http://service.mcafee.com/faqdocument.aspx?id=TS100601.

UPDATE: McAfee has published an update to their Site Advisor program to fix this problem. For more info, please see the McAfee FAQ here: http://service.mcafee.com/faqdocument.aspx?id=TS100601

Thanks,

The Windows Live team

I’m guessing that like most people, you probably have multiple e-mail accounts, some of which you use more than others. Since people may send Windows Live invitations to any of your e-mail addresses (work, school, personal), it can sometimes get confusing when you want to build out your network at a single, primary Windows Live ID. Let’s walk through a few scenarios for how to deal with this.

Situation: You have a primary e-mail address you regularly use to sign into Windows Live, but you get invitations sent to another e-mail address.

1. From your invitation e-mail, click the View invitation button. This will open up a page in your web browser. 
2. If you’re not signed in to Windows Live yet, you will be prompted to sign in.  Make sure you’re signed in with your primary e-mail address, the one where you want to accept the invitation.
3. After signing in, you will be on the All Invitations page. Now, depending on whether or not the e-mail address that the invitation was sent to is also registered as a Windows Live ID, you should see one of the following two messages at the top of the page:

3a) If you received the invitation at an e-mail address that is NOT registered as a Windows Live ID, then you’ll see the following message:
To accept the invitation at your currently signed-in, primary Windows Live ID, click Move invitations. This will take all of the invitations sent to your other e-mail address, and connect them with this Windows Live ID so you can accept them here. Then, go ahead and accept the invitations you want (and ignore or block the ones you don’t want.)

Note If any of these people are in your network already, then those invitations won’t be moved (so it’s possible you won’t see any new invitations).

3b) If instead, you received the invitation at a secondary e-mail address that IS registered as a Windows Live ID, then you should see the following message:
In this case, you should sign in with your primary Windows Live ID and re-invite the people you want to add to your network from that ID. Detailed instructions for inviting people to your network are in the next section. Then, you have two choices:

• If you don’t want or need the Windows Live ID where you received the invitations, then you should simply close that Windows Live ID account by going to https://account.live.com/CloseAccount.aspx and following the instructions there. The advantage of closing it is that now any future invitations that people send to you at the closed account can easily be moved and accepted as described above.
• If you still want to keep the Windows Live ID where you received the invitation, (or if you’re just not sure you want to close it yet), that’s fine. However, there is no simple way right now to move invitations from one Windows Live ID to another, so every time someone sends you a new invitation at the secondary Windows Live ID account, you will need to re-invite them from your primary account. More details about how to invite people are in the next section.

Situation: You use multiple Windows Live IDs, but you want to accept all invitations at one primary Windows Live ID.

As I mentioned above, unfortunately there is no simple way to move invitations from one Windows Live ID to another right now.  However, you can manually re-invite people using your preferred Windows Live ID by following these steps:

1. From your invitation e-mail, click View profile (under the View invitation button).

   
2. Sign in with the Windows Live ID you wish to invite this person from.
3. On this person’s profile page, above their what’s new list, click Add to your network.
   Alternatively, if you know the person’s e-mail address, you can go to http://profile.live.com/connect/, and type in their e-mail address. (By the way, this page is also a great way to add all the people you care about at once – you can easily import and invite your friends from Facebook or LinkedIn, or select people to bulk-invite from your Windows Live contact list (your Hotmail contacts) so you can start seeing their updates in the what’s new list and keep up with what they’re doing.)

It is our goal that the invitation process should go as smoothly as possible for you. If you have any other questions relating to invitations, please leave a comment and we will try to provide you with answers here or in a future blog post.

- Richard Shih, Windows Live Program Manager

Thank you to everyone who has shared your feedback with us on our team blogs, Live QnA, and through other channels.  We’ve heard some concerns from some of you that the new Windows Live isn’t respecting the privacy settings that you’ve put in place already, and wanted to take a few minutes to address those concerns.

• The privacy and security of your information is a top priority for us, and we want to assure you that we haven’t done anything that changes any of the privacy settings you’ve put in place. We have made changes that allow information you’ve already entered to be shared more easily across Windows Live. This means information you’ve entered is showing up in many more places and can make it look more public than it was before. But, the key thing is that the privacy settings you put in place when you first entered that information are still being honored.
• It’s important to note that your view of your own profile typically shows more information than visitors will see.  For example, you will see your last name on your profile if you’ve entered it before, but unless you’ve explicitly changed the permissions on it, then other people won’t see it when they visit your profile.  This principle holds true throughout Windows Live – people will always (and only) see the content that they have permissions to view.  See below for pictures that show how this works.
  
  Here is an example of Joe User’s profile, viewed by himself (left), next to the same profile viewed by a public visitor (right). 

The visitor sees much less information (right), because Joe hasn’t given them permission to see it.

How to change who can see what

To help address any confusion, we’ve pulled together the following links to where you can view and edit your permissions, as well as step-by-step instructions you can follow to protect your information the way you want.

Profile info

• Name - Choose whether to make your last name public
• Profile picture – Choose who can see your profile picture.  Note that this is separate from your Messenger picture.
• Your network– Choose who can see who is in your network (which is made up of your old Messenger contacts and your Spaces friends).
• About you – Choose who can see your basic info like your occupation, location, and interests.
• Your personal message – Choose who can see your status message.
• Contact info – Choose who can see your contact info like your email address and mobile phone number.
• Social – Choose who can see information like your favorite quote.
• Work info – Choose who can see what company you work for.
• Favorite things – Choose who can see the books, music, and movies you’ve added to your profile.

Invitations and communication preferences

• Communication preferences – Choose who can invite you to their network, and if you want to get e-mail notifications when they invite you.
• Notes – Choose who can post notes onto your profile, and who can view them.
• Photo and file comments – Choose if you want to allow comments on your photos and files.
• Blog comments – Choose if you want to allow comments on your blog posts. (See step-by-step instructions below)
• Guestbook comments – Choose how people can comment on your guestbook. (See step-by-step instructions below)
• People tagging – Choose if you want to allow your contacts to tag you and if you want to allow tagging of people in your photos.

What’s New

• What’s new with you - Choose which of your activities (like posting photos or adding to your network) that you want others to see. You can remove individual items and/or remove all future items for each type of activity. (See step-by-step instructions below)
• Web activities - Choose who will see your activities from other web services like Flickr and Twitter.

Your content

• Your space – Choose who can view your Space (including your blog).
• Your photos – Choose who can view photos in each of your albums.
• Your files – Choose who can view files in each of your folders.

Step-by-step instructions

Updated: Links to most permissions settings can now be found all in one place, at http://profile.live.com/permissions/.

Here are the specific steps to follow if you want to change the permissions in any of these areas:

Profile info

Name

1. http://account.live.com/editname.aspx
2. Make any changes you would like.
3. Click Save.

Profile picture

1. http://account.live.com/editpic.aspx
2. Make any changes you would like.
3. Click Save.

Your network

1. http://home.live.com/options/
2. Click Network permissions (lower left)
3. Make any changes you would like.
4. Click Save.

About you

1. http://account.live.com/editabout.aspx
2. Make any changes you would like.
3. Click Save.

Your personal message

1. http://account.live.com/editprofileaccess.aspx?pa=psm
2. Make any changes you would like.
3. Click Save.

Contact info

1. http://account.live.com/editcontact.aspx
2. Make any changes you would like.
3. Click Save.

Social

1. http://account.live.com/editinterests.aspx
2. Make any changes you would like
3. Click [Save]

Work info

1. http://account.live.com/editwork.aspx
2. Make any changes you would like.
3. Click Save.

Favorite things

1. http://profile.live.com/FavoriteThings/
2. Click Edit permissions.
3. Make any changes you would like.
4. Click Save.

Note: You can also add, delete, or edit any item in your Favorite Things from step 1.

Invitations and communication

Communication preferences

1. http://spaces.live.com/commpref.aspx
2. Make any changes you would like.
3. Click Save.

Notes

1. http://profile.live.com/notes/
2. Click Edit permissions
3. Make any changes you would like.
4. Click Save.

Note: By default, only people in your network can post notes

Note: You can delete a note posted on your profile by clicking Delete next to the note.

Photo and file comments

1. http://skydrive.live.com/commentoptions.aspx
2. Make any changes you would like.
3. Click Save.

Blog comments

1. http://spaces.live.com/
2. Click View your space (top left).
3. Click the Options menu (top right) and then click Blog.
4. Make any changes you would like.
5. Click Save.

Note: If you know the web address of your space, you can skip steps 1-3 by going to http://<your_space>.spaces.live.com/options/blog/

Guestbook comments

1. http://spaces.live.com/
2. Click View your space (top left).
3. Click the Options menu (top right) and then click Guestbook.
4. Make any changes you would like.
5. Click Save.

Note: If you know the web address of your space, you can skip 1-3 by going to http://<your_space>.spaces.live.com/options/guestbook/

People tagging

1. http://skydrive.live.com/peopleoptions.aspx
2. Make any changes you would like.
3. Click Save.

What’s New

Remove an update from What’s New with you

1. http://profile.live.com/
2. Hold your mouse pointer over the update.
3. Click the round blue gear (Settings icon) that appears at right.
4. Click Remove this update.

Remove future updates from What’s New with you

1. http://profile.live.com/whatsnewwithyousettings/
2. Make any changes you would like.
3. Click Save.

Hide updates from specific people from “What’s new with your network”

1. http://profile.live.com/whatsnewsettings/
2. Type the name or e-mail address of the person whose updates you want to hide.
3. Click Hide.
4. You should see a yellow bar at the top that says “Your changes have been saved.”

Hide updates of a specific type from “What’s New with your network”

1. http://profile.live.com/whatsnewsettings/
2. Select or clear the check boxes under Updates from Windows Live and Updates from web activities
3. Click Save.
4. You should see a yellow bar at the top that says “Your changes have been saved.”

Web activities

1. http://profile.live.com/webactivities/
2. Click Manage web activities.
3. Click Edit under the web activity that you want to change the settings for.
4. Make any changes you would like.
5. Click Save.

Note: You can also add web activities from step 1 by clicking Add under the web activity you want to add.

Your content

Your space

1. On the Home page, click More, and then click Spaces, or go to: http://spaces.live.com/.
2. Click View your space (top left).
3. Click the Options menu (top right) and then click Permissions.
4. Make any changes you would like.
5. Click Save.

Note: If you know the web address of your space, you can skip 1-3 by going to http://<your_space>.spaces.live.com/options/permissions/

Your photos

1. http://skydrive.live.com/albums.aspx
2. Click the album you want to work with.
3. At the bottom, it will say “Shared with: <who the album is shared with>”. Click whoever it is shared with currently.
4. Click Edit permissions
5. Make any changes you would like.
6. Click Save.

Note: You also set album permissions when you create a new album

Your files

1. http://skydrive.live.com/home.aspx
2. Click the folder you want to work with.
3. At the bottom, it will say “Shared with: <who the folder is shared with>”. Click whoever it is shared with currently.
4. Click Edit permissions.
5. Make any changes you would like.
6. Click Save.

Note: You also set folder permissions when you create a new folder

RSS feed of your space

1. http://spaces.live.com/
2. Click View your space (top left).
3. Click the Options menu (top right) and then click General.
4. Select or clear the check box for Syndicate this space (this will only be available if your space is public)
5. Click Save.

Note: If you know the web address of your space, you can skip 1-3 by going to http://<your_space>.spaces.live.com/options/general/

Hi, everyone.

Thanks again for all of the comments.

We're reading all of your comments, and we’re working on fixing many of the issues that we're hearing matter most to you. While we work, here are a few temporary solutions that we hope can provide some relief.

1. Try Windows Live Mail, a program you can install on your computer from http://get.live.com/wlmail. This is free, it works on Windows XP or Vista, and it will let you access your Windows Live Hotmail and contacts, plus you can add other e-mail accounts and view them all in one place. 
2. Try the Outlook Connector to read your Hotmail if you already use Microsoft Office Outlook. You can download the Outlook Connector for free to access your Windows Live Hotmail, contacts, and calendar.
3. [Updated 11/25/08] If you are a Linux user, or if If you need to access Hotmail from the web, try the mobile version of Hotmail on the web at http://mobile.live.com/hm. It doesn't have all of the features of regular Hotmail, but it may help you get to your inbox and other folders.
4. [Added 11/25/08] Hotmail works best with the latest version of your browser. Here is how to upgrade your browser.

• Internet Explorer
  • Go to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/ie/getitnow.mspx
  • Consider downloading Internet Explorer 7
• Firefox: Some users but not all users who are using Firefox 2.0.0.18 are having trouble opening mail. Upgrading to Firefox 3 fixes the problem.
  • Go to www.mozilla.org
  • Click the link to download Firefox 3
  • [New! 12/3/08] We have found that some people using Firefox version 2.0.0.18 and Real Player may have better results by upgrading to the latest version of Real Player at http://www.real.com.
• Safari
  • Go to http://www.apple.com/safari/download
  • Download the version that works for your computer

Again, we’re working on fixing the problems you’re reporting just as quickly as we can. We know that the options mentioned here are not permanent solutions, but we hope they might be helpful in the meantime.

Thanks for your patience.

  - Ellie Powers, program manager, Windows Live Hotmail

>>> Updated 11/25/08:

• We have fixed the bug that was affecting Hotmail customers using Linux with Firefox. They should be able to access Hotmail normally now. Thanks for your patience!
• We’ve also added information above (item 4) about how to upgrade your browser.
• See more bug-fix updates in this other blog post.

 >>> [New! 12/16/08] If you have more Hotmail questions or are experiencing issues with your Hotmail account, please go to the new Windows Live Solution Center at www.windowslivehelp.com. You can read more about it here: http://windowslivewire.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!2F7EB29B42641D59!29089.entry.

We’re rolling out the newest release of Hotmail as we speak. Slow rollouts are typical for large web services, both at Microsoft and other companies. We’re going to blog more about our slow rollouts and how they maximize the stability of the site in another post. Our Hotmail team blog readers know that we always roll out major updates slowly so that if any issues pop up, we can catch them early before they affect everybody.

Thanks so much to all of our observant Hotmail customers who have seen our latest version and added their constructive comments. The more you can tell us about the issues you are having, the easier it is for us to understand and fix them quickly. Here are some of the issues we’ve heard about, along with what you should try if you’re having the problem, or what we’re doing to fix it.

Can’t see your list of folders?

We’re hearing from a good number of you that you’re having problems seeing your e-mail folders with the new version of Windows Live Hotmail. This happens when you have the font size for your browser set to “large” or “largest.” If you’re experiencing this issue, please switch your browser font setting to “medium.” This is a temporary solution to a problem that we’re working on fixing soon. We apologize for the inconvenience and will notify you when this is fixed.

Having trouble opening messages?

A few people have mentioned that they can’t open messages. We don’t have any reports from customers yet that provide a clear list of the steps taken that produce the problem, so we would love to hear more details from you if you’re experiencing this issue. Please make sure you’ve set your browser font size to “medium” before reporting this issue, and try turning off your reading pane.

Want more space to read your messages and to open each message with a click?

You may have your reading pane turned on. Consider turning it off, especially if you have a small monitor. To do this, click "Options" in the upper right corner, and then under “Reading pane settings,” select “Off.” You may also want to maximize the size of your browser window and set your browser font size is set to “medium” for now.

Trouble scrolling your Hotmail window?

If you have a smaller monitor, try maximizing the size of your browser window. Also check your browser font size and set it to “medium.”

Can’t find your contacts when forwarding or composing a message?

We wanted to give you more space for typing your message, so we moved your list of contacts on the compose page. It’s still there, but it’s just hiding under the "To" button. Jennie from the Contacts team shares her tips:

When composing or forwarding a message, you have two easy ways to select contacts to send or forward to:

 

Select contacts from your contact list

1.       Click the To button.

2.       Click the People, Categories, or Favorites tab.

3.       Select the contacts that you want to send the message to.

4.       After you've finished selecting your contacts, click Close.

 

or…

 

Begin entering e-mail addresses or names

1.       In the box next to the To button, start typing the person's name or e-mail address. 

2.       As you type, contacts that match the letters that you're typing automatically appear below the To box.

3.       Click the person's name or e-mail address from the list to select that person.

Want to customize Hotmail’s new look?

Hotmail has changed its look to match the new direction of the rest of its Windows Live siblings. Customize your Hotmail’s look by clicking Options in the upper-right corner, and then choosing your favorite theme from the samples shown.

Was your Hotmail account unavailable?

Running a reliable e-mail system is the highest priority for the Hotmail team. We periodically need to upgrade our servers, to add new features or install security patches, so this means that your Hotmail is occasionally unavailable for a few minutes. We apologize for this inconvenience. Please understand that we do everything we can to minimize this down time.

Did your Hotmail account expire?

To keep your Hotmail account, you’ll need to sign in to check your inbox at least once every 180 days (approximately 6 months).

Keep your feedback coming. It helps us make Hotmail work better for people like you. If you’re having a problem, please include details and the steps that you took when the issue arose.

Thanks for using Windows Live Hotmail!

 - Ellie Powers, program manager, and the Windows Live Hotmail team

[Update, Nov 7, 2008]: Thanks for your thoughtful comments and questions! We're still listening, and we've posted answers to more questions here.

Have you seen WindowsLive.com lately? You might see someone you know, because a new blogger community called the Clubhouse is writing about its experiences with Windows Live. You can get tips, tricks, and creative ideas from people like you. Get to know the bloggers or go straight to their blog posts. Check it out! And if you're interested in contributing, you can ask to join the Clubhouse.

-Kirsten

P.S. On a separate (but related) note, I'm really digging the new design of WindowsLive.com—especially the little hand-drawn touches, like this guy:

(What is he, a snail? It doesn't really matter because he's so darn adorable.)

And the cool "action lines" around the buttons:

So fun!

The Windows Live Writer team just published five new videos that take you step-by-step through setting up a blog and using Windows Live Writer to publish great-looking blog entries with pictures, maps, videos, and other rich content.

Check out the Writer Zone blog for more info, and download Windows Live Writer for free! The videos are also available on MSN Soapbox and on YouTube.