Posted: January 22, 2009/Under: Internet/By: My Digital Life Editorial Team

Hotmail (actual name Windows Live Hotmai which formerly knowns as Windows Live Hotmail) has officially added free POP3 and SMTP feature support which used to available to Hotmail Plus paid subscribers. With Hotmail POP3 support and turned on, users can download the mail messages to desktop or mobile email clients such as to Outlook without using Office Outlook Connector or iPhone, or consolidate all email messages into another email service provider’s mailbox, such as Gmail.

The POP3 and SMTP support for Hotmail will be rolled out gradually to all users. Initially, only users in United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, Japan, Spain, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands will have the POP3 feature enabled on Hotmail account for free. Hotmail users from other countries will have to wait longer to enjoy the free POP3 and SMTP protocol access.

For user who can’t wait, and want to enable POP3 and SMTP access on Hotmail now, here’s the trick to force enable and turn on POP3 and SMTP support on all Hotmail account, regardless of location or country.

  1. Login to Hotmail.
  2. Mouse over Options, and then click on More Options.

    Hotmail Configuration Options

  3. Click on View and edit your personal information link under “Manger your account” section.

    View or Edit Personal Information of Windows Live ID

  4. Click on Registered Information link.

    Change Windows Live ID Registered Information

  5. For both Home Location and Work Location, change the following details to specified values:

    Postal Code: WC1B 3DG
    Constituent Country: England
    Time zone: London, United Kingdom – GMT

    Hotmail Location Hack

  6. Click on Save when done.
  7. Go back to Hotmail, and ensure that the display language of Hotmail is set to English by mouse over the Options.
  8. Configure your email client or other webmail service (Gmail configuration to access Hotmail via POP3) to access and download Hotmail Inbox via POP3 protocol, using the Hotmail POP3 and SMTP configuration settings.
  9. The email client or another mail service provider should be able to access, login and download or send through Hotmail server without error.
  10. Once Hotmail POP3 and SMTP support is enable on the account, it’s possible to change and revert back to your original web interface language, home and work location.

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