• by Jess Nelson , May 10, 2016

Microsoft email services will be upgraded by the end of June, retiring Windows Live Mail and forcing users to select a new email application or risk losing email access altogether. 

Security and infrastructure updates to Outlook.com will soon shutter the old email application, which was originally introduced in 2012. Customers who still use the desktop-based email service will need to change their email habits by resorting to a new email service and routine.

“To provide you an email experience with enhanced performance, security and reliability, the new Outlook.com has been built upon our latest Office 365 infrastructure,” writes Javier Soltero, corporate vice president for the Outlook team at Microsoft, in a blog post. Because the Windows Live Mail 2012 email application doesn’t support the protocols used by this new infrastructure, you will not be able to send or receive Outlook.com email from Windows Live Mail 2012 after your account is upgraded. This means the time has come for you to upgrade to a new email application.”

Microsoft email users, including Outlook and Hotmail accounts, have until June 30 to switch to a different email client. Domain names that will no longer synchronize with Windows Live Mail including outlook.com, Hotmail.com, Hotmail.co.uk, msn.com and live.com.

Microsoft is recommending that users switch to using the Outlook applications pre-installed in either Windows 8.1 or Windows 10, but they could also turn to third-party providers or access their email via browser at Outlook.com.

Microsoft is also offering Windows Live Mail users a free year of Office 365 as an alternative.

Windows Live Mail will no longer synchronize with Outlook or Hotmail email addresses, but perhaps paradoxically, will remain compatible with Gmail.