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Microsoft Will Stop Supporting Windows Live Mail 2012 (office.com)
An anonymous reader writes: "Windows Live Mail 2012 users are on notice: Switch to a modern email client or lose access to any Microsoft email accounts they have," reports InfoWorld. In a Thursday blog post, Microsoft informed users of their Windows Live Mail software that "the time has come for you to upgrade to a new email application." Outlook.com is moving to a new Office 365 infrastructure which uses protocols not supported by Windows Live Mail, meaning its users "will not be able to send or receive Outlook.com email from Windows Live Mail 2012 after your account is upgraded." InfoWorld points out this affects users with email addresses ending with @outlook.com, @hotmail.com, @live.com, or @msn.com.
The Outlook team's corporate vice president posted on the Office.com blog that "We recognize that changes like this can be difficult and apologize for any inconvenience this causes you..." adding that "we are confident that you will love the benefits and performance of the new Outlook.com," and recommending users switch to the Mail app on Windows. The Inquirer reports that Microsoft also emailed the software's users, suggesting that "If you are using Windows 7, you can upgrade to a newer version of Windows to enjoy the Mail app and the other benefits."
The Outlook team's corporate vice president posted on the Office.com blog that "We recognize that changes like this can be difficult and apologize for any inconvenience this causes you..." adding that "we are confident that you will love the benefits and performance of the new Outlook.com," and recommending users switch to the Mail app on Windows. The Inquirer reports that Microsoft also emailed the software's users, suggesting that "If you are using Windows 7, you can upgrade to a newer version of Windows to enjoy the Mail app and the other benefits."
... Outlook.com is moving to a new Office 365 infrastructure which uses protocols not supported by Windows Live Mail,
Soooo.... which one doesn't support the standard email protocols that the rest of the world seems to use, the new Office 365 infrastructrue or Windows Live Mail?
Microsoft, how come much of what you do these days makes life more miserable for computer users instead of making it easier?
I stopped supporting Windows a long time ago
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
That's not what this story is about. This story refers to support for a specific Microsoft Windows mail app being discontinued. I would say it's the opposite of what you describe, but it's not even that - you'll continue to be able to use other Windows mail apps, as well as the web interface, to Hotmail and Outlook et al.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Kind of but not really. The problem is they tried to lock people in with the Windows Live Mail app and if you are using the microsofts servers via windows live mail it forces a proprietary connection method. So the issue isn't with the server, they support all the normal basic suite of email sending and receiving methods. The problem is they tried to build a walled garden with their software 5 years ago and now don't want to support their own crap.
Of course they could release an update for windows live mail which removed the "force https stream / don't allow imap for microsoft domains" and the software would work with their server upgrades.
Evolve or die!
Or just just use services and mail clients based on established, independent standards, and spend your time on more important things than Microsoft's upgrade treadmill.
Register yourself a domain name of your own so you can control which service(s) will receive your mail in the future while you're at it.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
They used to, at least much better than this. That's the saddest thing about the Microsoft strategy in recent years: not only are they not delivering the kinds of benefits they should be to justify the lock-in they're asking their customers to accept, they're actually going backwards in several important ways that those customers will notice. They're so busy trying to beat Google and Apple at their own game (and failing) that they've forgotten how to be Microsoft.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Surely, I thought, Microsoft had come up with the best way possible to terminate a service - initially give it the name "Windows Live Service X" then on termination change the name to indicate status.
But here we find Windows Live Mail 2012 will NOT be renamed to Windows Dead Mail 2012, instead it will BE Dead while named Live. How does that make any sense?
Well as the old saying goes, naming is one of the hardest problems in CS...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
What is Windows Live Mail? Is it an email client? Did it come bundled with an OS? I've never heard of it before, and I work in a 100% MS shop.
I don't respond to AC's.
Setuping your own mail server is fine. I do that. But it's far more time consuming that upgrading a mail client... especially when from time to time your ip block get banned for no reason. Requesting reviewer and get unblocked.... with hotmail.com domain you don't have to deal with that.