How much can you complain about a FREE service ? I've got it, its ok, it works. People are just resistant to change. Its just like when Vista came out... oh no, sorry, vista is actually rubbish.

I could swear I've read this story before.

Today.

Meanwhile, Hotmail said it was unable to provide any statements from satisfied users as they were all busy trying to email Harriet Harman to tell her how much they can't wait for ID cards.

Vista is the best thing since sliced bread...

Bill Gates still works for Microsoft...

The EULA agreement is fair.

of MS's statement: "la, la, la, la, la!!!! I can't hear you!"

... but at least they closed the former loophole which meant that Konqueror users could actually access their email :)

...the contented bulk of that 280 million Hotmail users would like to say to the complainists and antagonaries that New Hotmail is just fine and dandy thank you very much. If their voices weren't being drowned out by the clamorous few, we would all see it for the success it is.

Voices like that of Dr Thaddeus Walter Ngwami of DR Congo who, as last surviving member of a noble family wrenched by colonialism and revolution, has finally been able to place his family's affairs in order and, with the help of a kind volunteer he contacted via Hotmail, regain the bulk of his ancestral wealth in bullion, mining royalties and precious gemstones.

Voices like 18 year old Mirishka Zeramanova, whose glamorous life as a highly sought after lingerie model in Eastern Europe had not even begun to fill the lonely void until, thanks to Hotmail, she met the middle aged civil servant of her dreams who whisked her off to mysterious Milton Keynes and a 2 bedroom brick veneer love palace.

Voices like Elouise X. Pottingshed whose struggling pharmaceutical business was saved from bankruptcy by a radical Hotmail based advertising campaign that saw sales of C1al1s and V1agra double, Pr0zac triple, and R0hypn0l go through the roof.

These voices, and the hundreds of millions of others almost exactly like them, are the untold story of Hotmail. While Donald Goodfellow whines about a few dozen lost emails, or Susan Goodwife carps about a handful of garbled baby photos, it only serves to drown out the silent swelling tide of approval from the likes of Thaddeus, Mirishka and Elouise.

If the past US election has taught us anything, it is the tragedy of the unheeded everyman. How about we start listening to Joe The Deposed African Royal, Joe The Lonely Russian Jezebel and Joe The Rebadged Aspirin Seller? Its time the people were heard.

Thank you, and goodnight.

So, comments about an unwanted revamp to familiar software are treated with contempt by the site owner. Fixed format Register, anyone?

“Every time we improve a product, it takes customers some time to adjust to the changes...."

They owe me a new keyboard!

Improve - Balls up

Product - Steaming pile of sh*t

Customers - People that don't know any better

Adjust to the changes - Figure out that there are alternatives

Absolutely spot on that man!

I was just about to embark on a rant about M$'s metrics for 'users', but no need - you've summarised it perfectly.

am I all alone?

While they have deleted well over 1000 posts from each the previous two blog posts about the new interface, your article is misleading as the link points to the latest post which had about 500 posts yesterday if I remember correctly, so that has only lost 200 or so posts. Still massive censorship, but please get your facts right.

latest post - lost 200 or so:

http://windowslivewire.spaces.live.com/?_c11_BlogPart_BlogPart=blogview&_c=BlogPart&partqs=amonth%3d11%26ayear%3d2008

Previous - lost about 1000:

http://windowslivewire.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!2F7EB29B42641D59!14128.entry

First -lost well over a 1000:

http://windowslivewire.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!2F7EB29B42641D59!7426.entry

Delete posts from forums, respond tersely (or just don't bother responding), carry on regardless.

That comment made me laugh. I haven't seen Java anywhere on the Hotmail service. The only thing I do see is that annoying JavaSCRIPT.

Anyway, I do find annoying that they make their stuff break on anything not Windows/IE.

How about this.... when I switched to using hotmail in Firefox all the display problems I was encountering were resolved. Come on Microsoft, you can't even get it to work in your own browser!

clearly, 83.5% of El Reg readers are pretty jobless. they just cant get enough of MS hate, they keep barking like dogs while the caravan just keeps passing by. oh... i love dogs, but not homo sapiens that act like dogs!

Right on. Couldnt have said it better myself. . .

Now if you would please like to help me get some of my funds out of the Bank of <INSERT COUNTRY HERE> I would be more then happy to give you 50% of the money. All I need is Name, DoB, age, mothers first and last name, fathers shoe size, blood type, bank account numbers, pin numbers, phone number, what was your first car/pet/date, whos your favorite band/sport team/superehero, a listing of all STDs you have had, place of residence, former place of residence, future place of residence, make and model of car (the last three you have had please), names and contact information of former lovers, best friends contact information, siblings information (they are also eligible to help with something else I need and would be more then happy at the reward), and finally school history all the way back to Kindergarten. Thank you for your time.

</rant>

As for I Like it.....

Sorry Jon but answer is probably so.

Those who whine about the rights of individuals to complain about "free services" should realize that hotmail is not "free." When you sign up for hotmail, you pay for it in several ways.

1- Your eyeballs are being commandeered by advertisers. Gaining your attention wastes your valuable time, and you should consider that the same as money.

2- You become dependent on the email account when you pass out the address to your contacts. This ties you to a service much like the drug dealer hooks you by giving you the first fix free. They've then got your eyeballs hooked via attaching significant withdrawal symptoms to their absence.

As you become more dependent on the service, you may customize your experience via the ability of various browsers and other services to fine tune things. But hotmail doesn't like to lose control like this, so they will fight this tendency and step on a lot of toes in the process. We should fully expect those bruised toes to yelp about it, and it is completely understandable and justified.

Microsoft is not alone in this, Yahoo recently created an updated email experience that is simply nonfunctional in my browser configuration (Firefox), so I revert to the "classic" version for as long as I can. But I moved to Yahoo from Hotmail several months ago simply because Hotmail changes broke the experience so badly in my environment that it became practically useless. I've all but phased out Hotmail, but it looks like I may need to do the same with Yahoo. I own a few domain names, my next step if Yahoo insists on becoming unusable, is to roll-my-own on a web server. The management of web-based email for me can be a useful service, but only if it remains consistent and reliable. If that is not in the best interests of the so-called "free" services, so be it, they are (or were, anyway) convenient, but not indespensable...

First impression with video settings at 1024X768

BARF!!!!!!!!!!!

Who ever did the design using the mail menu within an iframe.

Disgusting!

This new look will make everyone to force their resuloution to 1600X1900 or something like that.. Really now MS....... you really did bite the bullet.

its still not working...

i want compensation for thier utter fail...

I stopped using Hotmail online last summer. I access it from MS Outlook and have a consistent experience no matter what MS does. That's how I use Hotmail.

As for the new interface, I prefer the old one, but Outlook works for me. I don't need to worry about what MS does or doesn't do with Hotmail.

A pal of mine lost his Hotmail account because the "improved" system (*not* chosen by him) let him think he'd logged in when he hadn't --> a few weeks later --> expired,

That's "out in the cold" in his book (and mine).

Meanwhile I, as a Yahoo! User!, still experience not entirely irrational fear every time I see threats of my lot merging with this shower ...

*delete comments* Oh I don't see hardly any negative comments about the new interface, it's not a big deal.

Oh, it doesn't work on anything but Internet Explorer. Tragic. What do you mean web interfaces are supposed to be platform neutral? It supports XP *and* Vista.

Honestly, the redesign is one thing. Breaking it for non-IE and non-Windows? Ridiculous. Microsoft is REALLY pushing their luck with the DOJ's antitrust watchdogs making what should be technology-neutral web interface IE-only (they're still under consent decree and are supposed to still have people SPECIFICALLY watching for stuff like this). I think they probably broke this on purpose, several people had this work right on Ubuntu by forcing the vendor string to claim "Windows" instead.

It's also ridiculous that Microsoft is not listening to their customers (paid or not).

Google can already pull email from a mail server. Surely there is a way to make a "wizard" to pull all your email from hotmail and mail out change of address emails to all your contacts.

New Hotmail rant #4

I thought el reg would be the last people to go "oh noez it's different".

Get over it. And if you can't, use Gmail

I actually think the redesign is a massive improvement, everything seems faster, and things like the address book now actually work properly.

So, make that two votes for the new look.

Haha, I love it how they downplay severe bugs as being simply "the pains of migration to the new system". Yeah, um, a bug is a bug, and it's YOUR fault, jackasses. Just admit you fail at programming.