Get a Live.com Email Address

If you use any of Microsoft’s new Windows Live applications, you no doubt have a Windows Live ID, the new name for the old Passport single sign-on system that Microsoft has been pushing on its users for years. And if you are like most people, that ID is probably an old Hotmail address since all email accounts hosted by Microsoft double as Windows Live ID accounts.

Fortunately for those (like myself) who despise their old Hotmail accounts but have been forced to keep them around in order to log into Microsoft websites, the Redmond company is now allowing users to create brand new Windows Live IDs which include an email address using the live.com domain. Since I have always disliked the Hotmail name nearly as much as the service itself, this is a welcome change to me.

Granted, this is a brand new email account, not just a new address which points to one’s old email account. That is unfortunate, because I really don’t need another email address, plus I will still need to check my old Hotmail account since there are a few people who continue to send me mail at that address despite not having used it regularly in years.

But one neat feature of the new Live.com accounts is that they can be linked with other Live IDs, which means that I can use one login to access both accounts. That is one feature which my beloved Gmail does not offer (yet), and it would be great to have since I use a several different Google accounts, and I must log out of one before I can access the others.

For those interested in signing up for a Live.com address, now is a good time to do it. Since Microsoft has just beginning to allow its users to register email addresses with the new domain, there should be plenty of good names available.

Tags: Live.com • Email Address • Microsoft • Windows Live • Windows Live ID • Microsoft Passport • Single Sign-on • Hotmail • Login • Gmail • Google Account • Domain Name