Windows Live Mail Microsoft have announced that they are withdrawing support for Windows Live Mail 2012 in January 2017. It will not be possible to download and install the program after that date, but if you have it already installed it should continue to work. Options Microsoft would like you to switch to either the Mail program built-in to Windows 10 or to use the website Outlook.com. These are basic, easy-to-use email programs. However, neither of these options supports 'Contact Groups' (which at one stage Microsoft called 'Categories'). If you need the facility to send emails to the same group of people, there seems to be a choice between just two email programs: – Continue using Microsoft Live Mail – Switch to Mozilla Thunderbird (from the Firefox people) Hotmail and Windows Live Mail During 2016 Microsoft changed some settings on their Hotmail servers which made Hotmail accounts unusable in Windows Live Mail. However, Alan Paul of Ravenshead U3A Group has provided details of new account settings that can be used in Windows Live Mail with Hotmail accounts. (There is a link to Alan Paul's Computing Guides on the Tenbury U3A Computing Group webpage). If you have lots of emails atored in Windows Live Mail that you want to keep, then you need to follow the approach suggested by Alan Paul, which involves setting-up a second copy of the Hotmail account but with the new settings. However, if you are happy to start afresh with your Hotmail account in Windows Live Mail, then here is a simplified version: How to Recreate Your Hotmail Account in Windows Live Mail First, right-mouse-click over the Hotmail account name in Windows Live Mail and select 'Remove Account' and confirm that this is what you want to happen: