Renaming your account as a part of your upgrade to Outlook.com is optional. You can continue to use your existing Hotmail address and still upgrade. If you would like to rename you existing Microsoft Account to a new one in the Outlook.com domain, there are a few things you should know before you take that step:
How will signing into my Microsoft services change?
Renaming your account causes your sign in name to change from your existing @hotmail.com address to your new @outlook.com address. Your existing address becomes an alias of your new account so that mail delivery is uninterrupted. After renaming your account you will sign in with your new account to all services you previously accessed with your old account.
How does an account rename affect my Windows Phone 7?
On your phone, features that use the new @Outlook.com address will stop working, including Marketplace, Xbox LIVE, SkyDrive, email, and others. To use these features again on your phone, you'd need to restore it to factory settings, which erases all personal content. You will need to set up the phone using your new account. For more information on resetting your phone go here. Please note, You should choose Windows Live as the account type when going through the Windows Phone 7 setup after resetting the device. Choosing Outlook as the account type , although intuitive, is not the correct selection.
How will my email client settings be affected?
Renaming your account means you need to adjust your email client settings to use your new account to login to the servers. POP3 and SMTP settings are the same as those you used for Hotmail (click here). For more information on changing your settings, choose one of the following:
Adding an outlook.com account to Windows Live Mail requires an additional step that is not covered in the Help article.
After this step:
Type your email address, password, and display name, and then click
Next.
The next steup page will be for adding pop3 settings.
Click on POP and click on Windows Live Hotmail.
Click Next and then click Finish.
Finally, once renamed, messages to your new address will go to your inbox, and you can choose to keep your old mail in a separate folder. All of your other Microsoft account info—like contacts, photos and Office docs on SkyDrive—will also switch to your new address within a few days. Your Messenger contacts, while they may show up right away, your Messenger contacts may appear offline. This is a temporary issue that should resolve itself in 1 to 48 hours.
