How to Create a Hotmail Email Account

Hotmail can be pulled up on any computer with a Web browswer.

Hotmail, a free email service run by Microsoft, is an easy-to-use, attractive Web-based email option because you can access email from any computer, anywhere, because the messages are stored on the Hotmail server, not on your computer. Web-based email systems send and receive emails in HTML format, which allows you to see more than just plain text in your messages, e.g., photos, hyperlinks and animated icons or buttons. Hotmail also provides a lot of free storage space.

Instructions

1. Launch a Web browser and navigate to Hotmail.com.

2. Click on the "Sign Up" button on the left.

3. Type a Hotmail address into the field. This should be a unique name for your email address and it will serve as your login ID. Put together a combination of letters and numbers or symbols that has meaning to you and is easy for you to remember.

4. Select "hotmail.com" from the drop-down menu.

5. Create a personal password between six and 16 characters that you will easily remember, and type it into the box. Avoid common words and use a combination of numbers and uppercase and lowercase letters, so hackers won't easily be able to figure out your password. The password strength bar will let you know how secure your password is. Retype your password in the field below to make sure that you have no errors in the password you entered.

6. Type another email address in password reset information, so a Hotmail representative can contact you in case you ever need to reset your password. This field is also used to send you an email with login credential should you forget your password and need Hotmail to send you information.

7. Click on the drop-down menu to select a security question. Type in an answer that you will remember.

8. Fill in your personal information: name, country, zip code, gender and birth date.

9. Enter the visual confirmation code. This is a security feature to make sure that a human being, not a computer program, is requesting a new email account.

10. Deselect "Send me email ..." if you don't want to receive informational emails from Windows Live, Bing and MSN. If you leave this box checked and decide later you don't want to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe at any time.

11. Click on the "I Accept" button to agree to the Microsoft service agreement, the privacy statement and to create the account.

Tips & Warnings

• Keep your password safely written somewhere, in case you forget it.

References

• Microsoft: Hotmail