By the end of this week, all Windows Live Hotmail users will be upgraded to the new Hotmail. The rollout has been slow because we’ve been reading and listening to your comments. We’ve read all the comments, followed up with some of you, and changed the service as we went. Since our original announcement, we have read and analyzed several thousand comments, fixed several bugs, and released five updates to the code so far.

So, we want you to know that we’re listening, we’re making changes, and we want the service to be great.  

Here are answers to a few of your frequently asked questions.

Q: Why did you change? I liked the old version the way it was.

When we asked our users how we could make Hotmail better, the majority of people said they wanted the experience to be cleaner and faster. The new experience was designed with this in mind.

Now, we understand that everyone has different tastes and computer configurations. Although the majority of people in our tests preferred the new look and themes, some people didn’t.  So, while most of you have seen Hotmail improve, some of you have not, and we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Q: I find this hard to use. Was this tested with real users?

Yes, it was. We tested with several thousand people around the world and used their feedback to improve the design prior to releasing to all users. We interviewed hundreds of them to hear their opinions, measured their success rate accomplishing common tasks, and surveyed them  to see how much they liked the new service compared to the old one. The data from our tests showed that most users found the new Hotmail to be faster, more reliable, and more usable. 

Q: Can I opt out? Can I get the old version back?

A: We can’t provide two fast, secure, reliable experiences, so we have decided to just keep the new version. However, we will continue to improve the new version, based on many of your comments here, to make it work better for you.

And here are some specific concerns we’ve seen in your feedback, and what we’re doing to fix them:

Q: Where did my folders go? I can’t see enough of the page. The ad is too big. Can you give me more space?

A: We understand that the design isn’t optimal for many users who have smaller monitors, so we’re working on improvements to page layout that will give your inbox more space.

In the meantime, if you have a smaller display, you should maximize your browser window for best results (in Windows, look in the upper-left corner of the browser, click the Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Safari logo, and in the menu that appears, click Maximize).

Also, your folders are not gone — you may need to scroll the folder list to see them all.

Q: I can’t forward e-mail because I can’t find my contacts. I don’t know where my favorites went!

A: The new “contact picker” and “auto-complete” features were designed to save you time.

·         While addressing an e-mail message, just type a couple letters of the name and we will show just the names that match those letters.

·         Or, while addressing an e-mail message, click the To: button to see the full list of all of your contacts.

·         To set up your favorites, go to the Contact list and click the yellow star next to each name that you want to be a favorite.

While this may require an extra click for some of you, our research shows that typing a few letters of the name is usually a faster way to find an address than scrolling through a list. Once you get used to it, we hope you’ll find auto-complete useful, too. We also have some cool ideas about how to use the space where the favorites list used to be. We’ll keep listening to your feedback on this one.

Q: I don’t like the themes. What are you doing about this?

A: We agree that more themes are needed. Additional themes are being designed now, and will be coming soon.

Q: There aren’t as many messages on the page. I want to see more!

A: We hear you, so we’ll be increasing the default number of messages per screen, and providing the option for power users to see many more. Look for these changes in an upcoming release.

Q: Where is the spell checker?

A: For users of Internet Explorer, there is a Check Spelling button; clicking this button draws red underlines below misspelled words, and then clicking the underlined words shows you suggestions. For users of Firefox and Safari, you can just use the built-in spell checker in your browser, so misspelled words will be underlined automatically.

We are constantly reading your feedback, so please let us know what you think. We want you to love the new Hotmail!

- Mike Schackwitz, Lead program manager, Windows Live Hotmail