Outlook

[Nimrod]

I have a Hotmail account which Microsoft, in its infinite wisdom,has "upgraded" to Outlook e mail.
I now have a big column on the left with folders etc and a big column on the right with useless info and ads.
When I open e mails I don't always see them in full,ie,the colums impinge.
Is there a way to get rid of them please?

[Enrique]

Hi Nimrod,
"Is there a way to get rid of them please?"

Yes set yourself up a Gmail account and use that to "harvest" the existing Microsoft e-mail account.

[Nimrod]

Ah,yes good idea Enrique,I found you can "squeeze" the l/h box down a bit but your idea is more sensible.
Many thanks.

[El Cid]

I agree entirely. Gmail is far and away the best free email system whether or not you use the online web mail option or download your mail to a desktop email client like Windows Mail.

Their spam filtering is amazingly efficient and you have so many options for forwarding to other email accounts.

I do have an Outlook account and a Yahoo account but I can think of no reason why I would want to use either of them on a regular basis.

Sid

[katy]

I am fed up with Outlook too There is now no option to change back! Today I have been in 3 times and was not able to open any mail...just says outlook is not available right now, try again later

[littleeak]

Try accessing your emails through Windows Live Mail programme & not use the Outlook site at all. We have 3 hotmail accounts on it.

[tjtops]

I couldn't agree more....since the (unsolicited and allegedly imperative) 'upgrade' to Outlook, I have had nothing but problems and it is doing my head in. These range from' we cannot access Outlook t this time' to it being 'unable' to 'see' libraries from which I want to attch files...I am so so angry but of course that is getting me nowhere! I have a Gmail account but TBH I just can't get my head round its strange email system structure and don't want to have to rely on that.....so....what is this 'Windows Mail'??? Is this a viable alternative??? And if so, how would I set it up??

[tjtops]

And now, Outlook refuses to 'find' past emails via the search facility, when they are obviously still there, and the senders/recipients email addresses come up as 'suggestions'......what can I do? (I've wasted all morning so far trying to set up Windows Live Mail but it refused to send or receive....(and yes, I DID do a reboot).....I really don't want to be downloading ALL my past emails either.......
Just about to do a system restore...and then top myself I think.
It's all just going from bad to worse!!!

[Enrique]

Hi tjtops,
All I can offer is a shoulder to cry on and some words of encouragement ...........

If the system restore works then it could be an update that has sneaked in under the radar.

If so check Windows update in Control Panel.

[tjtops]

Um.. No it didn't work!! Out now on duty visit so will return to it shortly.. Tearing hair out stage!!

[tjtops]

OK...so.....now I am REALLY p*****d off. I finally managed to do a system restore (took about 7 goes!!)....but Outlook still absolutely refuses to 'find' ANY past emails (via the 'search' facility)..... this is a major problem for me, so any ideas????

[Enrique]

Hi tjtops,
There are some other unhappy clients out there........

I'm unable to post links as The Forum throws up a 504 error....so you will have to Google and look at recent entries only.

GOOGLE

outlook.com failing to find old emails after upgrade

[El Cid]

Best advice - move to Gmail.

Sid

[tjtops]

Enrique....OK thanks; Sid...I absolutely hate it (even though I know it works better!!!)

[tjtops]

PS......what really puzzles me is that this particular issue only started 2 days ago.....about the same time as it suddenly stopped 'seeing' a certain folder in my documents library (when I needed to attach a file to an email)......could the two things be related and if so why/how??? (I've had the awful Outlook much longer than that!)

[tjtops]

PPS....now it's REALLY getting weird.......
SOME email histories it can 'find'.....the majority not. I have Googled till I'm all googled out and I'm no nearer finding out what's going on.....plus I've wasted a whole day.
So...then I've tried to sign into my gmail account.....only to get a message about are my cookies enabled! I can't see how/where to check this (nothing in the Firefox drop-down menu)......
So basically I'm sinking.......

[Enrique]

Firefox cookie settings..........

http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/ena ... references

Are you sure the Cookie thing is not just the message they(sites) have to put out now and you accept or reject them........

[tjtops]

ok many thanks....will check that out and no, it wasn't that same message!
Well...curiouser and curiouser as Alice would say..... today's instalment!
I suddenly thought I could check if I'd done something stupid (highly likely!) on or to my laptop, so I've dug out my netbook and had a go on there.
Same thing.....email search will 'find' some people/messages but not others (returns a 'we couldn't find etc etc -- even though there are recent messages -- and it suggests an advanced search -- which can't 'find' them either!!!
But....and here's where it gets really weird!!!.....I have a hotmail.co.uk (which I use mainly) and a hotmail.com.....and this morning it's suddenly decided it can find these EXACT SAME people on the .com account! (Although obviously, that's not much help since the convos/messages etc are mostly on the co.uk one)
So what is going on??? Is there some sort of background 'updating/indexing' going on without our knowledge? I ask that because at one point last night (before I completely gave up) I saw a window saying something so many files (?) out of so many having been indexed ...unfortunately, I was so tired by then that I closed it before I'd really thought about it.....
Is there a possibility that it's automatically indexing in the background, one account at a time? (One of the main 'people' it can't find is someone with whom I possibly have the largest number of emails on the co.uk account)
Or is that just wishful thinking......
(IE decided it could get into Gmail BTW when Firefox said it couldn't).........

[bigal]

I have e.mail accounts with Yahoo, GMail and Hotmail and I run them all through Mozilla Thunderbird. I did download Outlook about a week ago, but didn't like it and decided to stick with Thunderbird. Haven't lost any e.mails that I am aware of and it seems to work OK (for me, anyway).

Mozilla versus Microsoft - no brainer!

[littleeak]

what is this 'Windows Mail'??? Is this a viable alternative??? And if so, how would I set it up??

it's easier to send this link that try to explain!!

http://download.cnet.com/Windows-Live-M ... 98282.html