A little history lesson: On January 20, 2005, Microsoft released Microsoft Office Outlook Live. This was a subscription service that gave subscribers a one year license for Outlook 2003 (or the latest version of Outlook) and a Hotmail account with 2GB storage space, the Outlook Connector to connect to it, the ability to send large attachments, plus antispam and antivirus filtering.
After a couple of years, they decided to end the MOOL program and make the connector available to the public. They renamed the connector Outlook Live Connector (or OLC for short), then later renamed it once again, to the Outlook Hotmail Connector. (OLC is still used as the abbreviation internally and we’re using it on this page.)
Microsoft later repurposed the term “Outlook Live” to refer to their Hosted Exchange service for universities. We’re repurposing this page for information about the Outlook Hotmail Connector.
The Outlook Hotmail Connector (OLC) requires Outlook 2003 and up.
The OLC has the same limitations as MSN and Hotmail accounts. This means you can not have more than 1000 contacts, recurring tasks are not supported at all, and some recurring appointment options are not supported.
OLC uses an *.ost data file format. If you installed the Outlook Connector with an MSN premium account previously, your message store format maybe *.nst. Removing the old account from Outlook and recreating it should create an *.ost file for the connector account, however, in my experience, it doesn’t always happen. Along with the file format change, the account name in Outlook’s folder list uses the email address for the data file name.
You can access your email from anywhere by logging into Hotmail Live. Custom mail folders created in Outlook’s offline store will migrate to the server, but it may take a few minutes. You cannot create additional contact folders in Outlook as Hotmail only supports one Contact folder.
Tasks, Notes and Journal are not supported online. Keep this in mind if you are told to delete the Hotmail data file and let Outlook recreate it.
Choose the Sending Account | KB Articles | More Information
Choosing the Sending Account
When you set the OLC account as default so that you can store all of your email online, the OLC account is used as the default sending account for new messages.
To send from one of the other accounts, do one of the following:
- Select the account from the Accounts menu
- After opening a new message form, press Alt+N then the number of the account before typing the recipient’s address in the To field.
- Create a template that has a different account selected and create a hyperlinked toolbar button to use when you send a new message. Learn how.
Replying to messages properly uses the account you received the message with.
Using mail merge to email sends the messages on the default account set in Tools, Email Accounts. Note that you must have the same version of Outlook and Word to use mail merge.
MSKB Articles
The following Knowledgebase Articles cover the Outlook Connector:
- Outlook Hotmail Connector users see error (0x8004102A) : ‘Error with Send/Receive’ during normal sync
- You receive Send/Receive error message when you synchronize an Outlook Hotmail Connector account in Microsoft Outlook 2010
- Outlook Hotmail Connector send/receive error 4403 or 1133 and prompt to repair synchronization configuration
- When synchronizing an Outlook Hotmail Connector account in Microsoft Outlook 2010 you may receive a Send/Receive Error 4203
- The Microsoft Office Outlook Connector does not appear to connect, and it does not synchronize your e-mail account in Outlook
More Information
- Features of the Microsoft Office Outlook Connector (KB 892455)
- Outlook Live Frustrations
- How to create a log file for Office Outlook Connector (KB 834459)
- Changing Outlook’s Default Data File – follow these steps to set your MSN data file as the default.
- Learn about the files Outlook uses and what to backup.
- Accessing Hotmail / Live / MSN accounts in Outlook
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Last reviewed on Dec 8, 2011
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