If you haven't already specified an alternate email address that can be used to get a new password if you forgot yours, do so. If you want to switch to a email address first switch to webmail. You don't need to make any changes in Thunderbird since uses the same POP and SMTP servers as Hotmail. If you already have a Hotmail account that works with Thunderbird you can switch between the Hotmail and Outlook webmail using the gear icon in the upper right corner (of their web page). Microsoft is slowly replacing Hotmail webmail with webmail. If an account suddenly stops working take a look at Outlook down detector Switching to You don't need to do this using a browser, Thunderbird will login to Hotmail/Outlook whenever it checks for new mail. You need to login periodically to keep Microsoft from disabling the account. Normally you'd only use it if you're behind a firewall that prevents you from accessing the POP server or you need to download the contents of the Spam folder. However, the webmail extension is slower, harder to configure and may break (requiring you to get an updated add-on) whenever the web page changes. You can still use the webmail extension and its Hotmail add-on. If you run into performance problems try using the server for POP or IMAP and server for SMTP instead.

Secure connection: STARTTLS (works, but not documented) or SSL/TLS (What Microsoft documents).

Port: 587 (you could also use port 25 if your ISP doesn't block it).

Server Name: (old setting that still works) or (what Microsoft now documents).

You could also use port 143 with STARTTLS instead.

Port: 993 (this should be automatically set when you select SSL).

If you want a IMAP account you need to press the Manual button in the second screen of the account wizard and edit the settings until the remote database is updated to support IMAP. It currently defaults to creating a POP account.

Port: 995 (this should be automatically set when you select SSL).

Create a new account by pressing the Add Mail Account button in Tools -> Account Settings -> Account Actions. You no longer need to use an add-on to use Hotmail with Thunderbird. also supports free IMAP accounts, though you are supposed to use it with a different SMTP server. Both use the same free POP and SMTP server so if you have an existing Hotmail POP account you don't need to do anything. (Windows Live webmail) has been replaced with (Outlook webmail). This article was written for Thunderbird but also applies to Mozilla Suite / SeaMonkey (though some menu sequences may differ).

Hotmail settings for outlook