Any ways to keep Outlook account (email, contacts) active other than signing in through a web browser?

This warning

Warning

• You need to sign in to your forwarded Hotmail account at least once every 365 days, otherwise the system will close the account.

comes from this page

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/outlook/alias-rename-link-FAQ

This is a change from the 270 day countdown.  I know this as a fact.

My thoughts on the why are the only way to see any ads is to login with a browser.  You do not see ads in the Mail app, in People, when you use an email program, or when you forward messages.

The ads pay for the service.

Ah!  Ads, I never thought of that.  So I wonder, then, if they include ad-free and non-expiring Outlook.com if you subscribe to their Office 365, which to me would make a fair amount of sense as some added bonus?  Or maybe they don't...  (I haven't heard anything like that, to be sure.)

And, if everyone only signed in once every 365 days, I wonder if anyone would find it worth paying for ads?  But perhaps I shouldn't be muttering such things.

Anyway thanks for the information.  I suppose this could always be got around by setting Outlook.com as one's homepage, and remembering username and password, so that every time a browser was opened, it was automatically refreshed, but that's still a nuisance I'd almost be willing to pay for .. or would actually be willing, if it came with something else I might be willing to pay for in the near future...

Please excuse my speculating and out-loud thinking.  :)

So, can anyone from Microsoft officially confirm that none of their products (Windows Phone 8 Mail app and Windows 8 Mail app, for example), save for their Outlook.com website specifically, will keep an Outlook.com email account active?

Also, and from a little searching I found nothing on this, do Outlook.com email addresses get cancelled if they haven't received email for a certain time?  I assume not since I can't find somewhere that says it does, but I thought it best to ask.  This is assuming the account is signed in to occasionally, of course.

You're right, I had assumed that people with real Microsoft information (that is, people who can access current valid Microsoft information) operate here.  And while they may, they of course are far and few between, with threads that go several pages back within minutes, and the threads are often not really considered important anyway.

The chances are indeed nil!

I had assumed that, unless there's an FAQ I missed somewhere (and there probably is!), the only people who can confirm that Microsoft's own software does not renew that time limit of Outlook.com account inactivation, are people who built the software, people who worked on documentation for this, and associated people.  That, or volunteers who had actually put it to the test, not using their Outlook.com account for 365 days and only using Windows 8 Mail app or their Windows Phone Mail app to access it (or 270 days?  It doesn't seem clear, even with the link you provided; I've read that 365 days applies to Microsoft account inactivation, not necessarily Outlook.com account/email inactivation).

Of course, people can express opinions, but you're right that I was after some kind of irrefutable information.  And the community forums, that (and I won't mince words) Microsoft fob everyone off to that they can, probably can't give that information to a great degree of certainty, given that Outlook.com has not been out for that much of a great deal of time and, from what I can tell, Microsoft have not answered that kind of question specifically (though I welcome links to anywhere that confirm such information).

My other query that I just made about the account becoming inactive if not receiving (or for that matter, sending) email for a time, but still being logged into, still stands but again due to the length of time that Outlook.com has not been around, I would assume that the community at large is not certain of whether or not this is the case, without themselves having read official Microsoft information.  .. which you have essentially confirmed to me is scarce around here.

That's alright, I was an idiot to let optimism infect me for a moment and post here, and I can't seem to find a non-pushy and less-rude manner either.  I'm acting like those customers that I think shouldn't act like.  It is better if I skip over asking anything here in forums, better for me, better for you, and better for everyone on here.

That is not to say I don't appreciate the time you put in to answering.  I do (I'm sure it does not show, and I apologise for that).  The problem is that what I'm after, as you have aptly put, is not available on here, and thus, if I let optimism (and a lack of reality) take me again (not if I can help it), I will follow other routes (with likely no result) and avoid forums.  Thanks for opening my eyes, I needed that.