But account recovery is only one of the options, and sort of a last resort, and we take a closer look at those later in this guide.

Lets take a look at the standard Hotmail sign in. It starts by visiting hotmail.com or mail.live.com, and entering the username and password in the form on the page. Please note that the web address hotmail.com redirects to a live.com address. Both are part of Microsoft and should not be of concern. Just make sure that the live.com address begins with https, which indicates a secure connection to the service.

hotmail sign in page

The Windows Live ID, or the username, is the email address the account was registered with. This is usually a @hotmail.com email address. The password is the case sensitive account password that has a minimum size of six characters.

If you can sign in, you are taken to the Hotmail Highlights page, from where you can access the inbox and send emails.

You probably would not be reading this article if you were able to log in successfully to Windows Live Hotmail.

Lets take a look at the possibilities if you encounter error messages.

Probably the most common error encountered on the Hotmail sign in page is that the password or Windows Live ID are not accepted. Please note that Hotmail will eventually add a so called captcha to the log in process if the ID and password are not accepted. This should not be confused with temporary lock outs of the account, which only happen if Hotmail detects spam-like activity from it.

The first thing that you should do is to verify that the Windows Live ID and password are correct. If you think they are, make sure the caps lock key on the keyboard is not active.

If you are sure that the login credentials are correct you may want to consider reseting your password.

You do need the Windows Live ID to reset the password, and enter the characters from a captcha image. Some users may run into problems here, if they do not remember their Hotmail email, or if the email they enter is not accepted in the password recovery form.

There is no option to recovery the email address, or have it displayed to you in the process. If the password reset email does not arrive in your account, you have the option to use other means of verification after a 24 hour period.

Hotmail users who have already added a mobile phone number to their password reset information, can use it to receive a temporary one-use sign in password. To use it, they need to click on the Get a single use code to sign in with link on the Hotmail sign in page.

This displays a new page where they can enter the single use code, or request a new one if they do not have one.

Users need to enter their Windows Live ID and the phone number they have added in their Hotmail account to receive the single use code.

This code can then be used as a one-time sign in replacement for the Hotmail password.

Another option for users who cannot log in to Hotmail is to visit the Windows Live Solution Center to post a request for support. Microsoft employees are monitoring the forums and try to aid in the account recovery.

It may also pay of to try to sign into Hotmail on another computer system if available, or to use the Windows Live Mail software.

The last resort is the account password recovery page on Windows Live Help. Users can recover their account by either entering the secret answer to their secret question, or using an alternate email address if one was configured during setup.

Tips to avoid Hotmail sign in problems

Here are a few precautions you can take to avoid sign in troubles at Hotmail or other Windows Live services.

• Configure as many password reset options as possible. This is done after sign in, by going to Options > More Options in the right corner of the Hotmail interface, and selecting View and edit your personal information under Manage your account.
• It is possible to enter multiple alternate email addresses (which need to be verified once), mobile phone numbers (for single-use sign ins and account recovery), trusted PCs (for password recovery) and to change the secret question and answer.
• A password manager can help to avoid troubles logging into Hotmail and other Windows Live services. It will always remember the right password, and some can even sign you in automatically.
• Make sure the password is secure, we suggest to use at least 16 characters, that are mixed upper and lower case characters, numbers and special characters.

Finally, there is another tip that may aid you. Microsoft is operating a status page for their Windows Live services, that indicate if a service is running normally. You may want to check this page if you have troubles signing in and are sure that you are entering the right login credentials. It can be that Hotmail is down temporarily, and if it is it will be indicated on the page.

You may also want to check out or Hotmail login guide for additional pointers.

The permanency of the login information can pose a problem, especially on public computers and insecure networking environments. Anyone in possession of the username and password can log into the service.

That’s why PayPal some time ago introduced optional VeriSign Identity Protection Devices. The devices generate a six digit code that is valid for 30 seconds. This code needs to be entered during the PayPal login to get access to the account.

Microsoft has introduced a similar system to Windows Live. Windows Live users can generate so called single-use codes before they log into Windows Live which can be used instead of the password. A single-use code is only valid once making it an ideal password replacement when logging in on public computer systems or insecure networks.

A single-use code is a code you can use instead of your password when you sign in with your Windows Live ID. Each code can be used only one time, but you can request one whenever you need one. If you’re signing in on a public computer—like at the library or school—using a single-use code helps keep your account information secure

The password replacement becomes invalid the second it has been used to log into the Windows Live service. The single-use code is send to a mobile phone number registered in the Windows Live account. Here is how it works.

It begins with the editing of the Windows Live profile to add a mobile phone number to it. Users who already have a mobile phone number configured do not need to do anything.

windows live login

Each Windows Live login form displays a link to use a single-use code instead at the bottom.

Not your computer? Get a single-use code to sign in with

A click on that link opens the Windows Live Single-Use Code login form. Only the Windows Live ID needs to be entered here. A click on Request a code displays a country selector and a form to enter the mobile phone number.

single-use code

The single-use code can only be requested in supported countries. Codes can be send out to United Kingdom, United States, Germany, Canada and about ten additional countries.

It is advised to try sending out a single-use code once to make sure the code gets send properly to the entered mobile phone number.

The Windows Live Single-Use Code can improve the security of Windows Live users, which includes Hotmail, SkyDrive or Windows Messenger tremendously. There is obviously a new risk associated with this as well. All an attacker needs to log into the Windows Live account is the mobile phone of a user who has configured the phone number in the account. Live users need to keep that in mind if they configure the phone number in Windows Live.

Hotmail Watcher is a Firefox add-on that can notify the user whenever new email has arrived in a Hotmail account. The extension does not need to be configured with the Hotmail username or password as it takes the information directly from the cookie that Hotmail sets.

The user needs to be logged into the Hotmail website before the extension can start showing notifications of new emails in the email account.

The extension places an icon with a counter in the Firefox status bar upon installation. The counter will be updated as long as the user is logged into the Hotmail account. A left-click on the icon opens the Hotmail website and resets the counter, a right-click displays the add-on’s options and a middle click to check for new emails directly.

The extension is configured to check every 20 minutes for new emails. This can be changed to a timeframe between every 5 minutes and every 4 hours. It is furthermore possible to disable the automatic checks and check only on the user’s request.

Sound, display and blink alerts can be displayed to the user whenever new emails have been found in the Hotmail email account.

Hotmail Watcher is an experimental add-on for the Firefox web browser that can be downloaded from the Mozilla website.

The Hotmail user can then log into Hotmail using the Windows Live ID or the Hotmail username and password that were selected during setup of the email service. The Hotmail username is usually the Hotmail email address.

The website contains an option to restore the Hotmail password if it cannot be entered correctly. There are two options to reset the password. The first is to use location information and the secret answer to the question to reset the password, the second to send password reset instructions to email. The second option obviously makes only sense if the email account can still be accessed.

Microsoft has created a help file that tries to help Hotmail users who cannot sign in to the service:

If you can’t sign in to a website or service with your Windows Live ID (The e-mail address and password that you use to sign in to Windows Live programs and services such as Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger; Microsoft services such as Xbox LIVE, MSN, and Office Live; and anywhere else that you see the Windows Live ID logo.) , try the following:

* Make sure that you typed your password correctly. Passwords are case sensitive (Capable of distinguishing between uppercase [capital] and lowercase [small] letters. For example, A is different from a. If information is case sensitive, it must be typed with the required capitalization.) . If you’ve forgotten your password, try to reset it. For more information, see Reset your password.
* Make sure that your Caps Lock isn’t on.
* Make sure that the correct domain (A group of computers and devices on a network that are administered with common rules and procedures. The domain name is the part of your e-mail address after the @ sign, such as hotmail.com.) name is typed in the Windows Live ID box.
* Check that the Windows Live network isn’t temporarily out of service.
* Check that the website or service that you want to sign in to has the Windows Live symbol.

There are two options for users who want to avoid login difficulties in the future. The first option is to configure Hotmail in a desktop email software. Those usually work even if the Hotmail website is temporarily not accessible. The other option is to use a password manager like Last Pass which can remember the username and password and log in the user automatically whenever the Hotmail page is opened.