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Microsoft Office Outlook Connector 12.1 Beta

Jul. 24, 2008 Paul Thurrott | Paul Thurrott's Supersite for Windows

This could be huge. Those waiting for calendaring syncing between Hotmail/Windows Live and Microsoft Outlook can rejoice: It looks like it's finally happening (albeit in beta form):

Brief Description

With Microsoft Office Outlook Connector, you can use Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 or Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 to access and manage your Microsoft Windows Live Hotmail or Microsoft Office Live Mail accounts, including e-mail messages, contacts and calendars for free!

Overview

With Microsoft Office Outlook Connector, you can use Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 or Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 to access and manage your Microsoft Windows Live Hotmail or Microsoft Office Live Mail accounts, including e-mail messages, contacts and calendars for free!

Outlook Connector enables you to use your Live Hotmail accounts within Outlook:

  • Read and send your Office Live Mail/Windows Live Hotmail e-mail messages.
  • Manage your contacts in Windows Live Hotmail.
  • Use advanced options for blocking junk e-mail messages.
  • Manage multiple e-mail accounts in one place.
  • Manage, and synchronize multiple calendars, including shared calendars to Windows Live Calendar from Outlook.
Note to Premium Subscribers:The Outlook Connector will automatically upgrade your MSN Calendar to the new Windows Live Calendar beta. Once upgraded to Windows Live Calendar, you will be able to synchronize multiple calendars, including shared calendars to Outlook! You will no longer be able to access MSN Calendar.

Very, very interesting. Given the mess Apple has made of MobileMe, this is very good timing, and it looks like Microsoft finally has a complete answer to Google's Gmail/Google Calendar/Gmail Contacts sync. Bravo.

Thanks to Adam T. for the tip!

More info: Use a Windows Live Hotmail account in Outlook (still out of date, noting that calendar sync is paid service-only)

Discuss this Article 19

tayme
on Jul 24, 2008
They really need to roll this into Mesh, creating a one stop shop for syncing your data to the cloud. --tayme
dougxd
on Jul 24, 2008
.........except for the issue of calendar syncing that many are complaining about on the forums and newsgroups. Apparently, some peoples' "additional" calendars (not their first one, but any secondary calendars they create) are having issues syncing to outlook. But hey, it's beta code, right? I wonder how long MS will keep the now multiple years old connector in beta.......hmmm.
tayme
on Jul 24, 2008
@dougxd - "I wonder how long MS will keep the now multiple years old connector in beta" Probably about as long as Apple continues to charge people $100/year to beta test mobileme. :-) --tayme
beaker
on Jul 24, 2008
I'm so confused with all of the Live monikers. What is Live Hotmail and Microsoft Office Live mail? It gives me a headache. MobileME is garbage. The "LIVE" or "Live" stuff is confusing as hell.
dtatgenho
on Jul 24, 2008
Quote: "Probably about as long as Apple continues to charge people $100/year to beta test mobileme. :-)" Couldn't have said it better myself :) ... Or probably as long as Google hides behind all of their "Betas" as well. I think Gmail has been in beta since Reagan was in office...
subzerohitman721
on Jul 24, 2008
Hey, its about time Microsoft got this done. Should have been done several Windows versions ago. (Like Windows 98.)
BrightrevCarl
on Jul 24, 2008
Good first step. Now they need to get wireless sync to mobile devices working as well (or is it already there?)
dougxd
on Jul 24, 2008
@tayme -- I agree. Google pulled the same schtick with gmail. This.......must........end! :-)
fireboy92k
on Jul 24, 2008
I just wished it worked with Windows Live Mail Desktop. Since they moved Outlook back to using the old HTML engine, it's a pain in the butt to manage a good portion of my e-mail. That's the place where Microsoft still gets it wrong I think. They need a consumer space model and a business space model.
Snakedoctor1
on Jul 24, 2008
But what about http://join.msn.com/premium/features ??????????? MASS CONFUSION!!!!! Kill all of the Hotmail, Hotmail Plus, MSN, MSN Premium, WebTV, Passport stuff off and offer just one LIVE/Live service....like Google and Apple. On top of that make it work with Windows Mobile if it does not already. Of course that would eat into hosted Exchange. Oh and have one version of Windows 7, at one price for consumers.
Snakedoctor1
on Jul 24, 2008
"I just wished it worked with Windows Live Mail Desktop" Oh yeah forgot about the many versions of mail clients, Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Live Mail Desktop, Windows Calendar. MASS CONFUSION!!!
tlmii
on Jul 24, 2008
"Oh yeah forgot about the many versions of mail clients, Outlook Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Live Mail Desktop, Windows Calendar." So you listed 5 "mail clients" - one of which is a calendar app, not a mail client, and two are the same thing (just a new name on a new operating system. So really its just * Outlook - high end offering * Outlook Express (if on XP)/Windows Mail (if on Vista) - included with OS * Live Mail Desktop That's really not all that terribly confusing. Good try with the FUD though. I will admit that Live Mail Desktop is a confusing offering relative to Windows Mail... But frankly I don't know many people that even know it exists so its kind of hard for them to be confused. People just know about the high end, expensive option and the low end, free option. Pretty simple.
shankman1
on Jul 24, 2008
If Live Hotmail only had IMAP support for the iPhone I would be in heaven!!!
Snakedoctor1
on Jul 24, 2008
@tlmii you know its three versions and so do I. Does joe consumer.....nope. They see confusion, and that is my point you know "MASS CONFUSION" was the key there. I mention the calendar for a few reasons. 1. The blog post mentions calendar sync as a feature for this new connector....does it not? Outlook (full client) and Windows Calendar are the only two MS calendars I know of. 2. Paul threw a hissy fit over the fact that MobileMe only supported the Outlook client and not the Vista calendar. If this does not and all of its from MS......Where is the OUTRAGE!!!!:) Oh the sweet irony. 3. Just the other day posted a blog post about Gmail and how webmail is the new way things are done and the fat client is the "traditional way" and how and many others had moved away from Outlook. If so then who cares about a fat client sync. Just goes to show he is all over the place.....just like MS offerings. Consumer 101 make it easy for the user to understand the product. You know like 5 versions of Vista:):)
anonymous
on Jul 25, 2008
We've been wall-to-wall Microsoft services lately and for good reason -- Microsoft's Live offerings are really maturing lately. One...
Waethorn
on Jul 25, 2008
"I will admit that Live Mail Desktop is a confusing offering relative to Windows Mail... But frankly I don't know many people that even know it exists so its kind of hard for them to be confused." It's actually just called "Windows Live Mail". It's even more confusing when you see Windows Mail in your Start Menu, and Windows Live Mail only a couple entries down. I install the Windows Live Suite on consumer systems, and the thing I hate about it all is that you can't remove or disable Windows Mail or Windows Photo Gallery in favour of the Live versions. Windows Mail is supposedly used for some part of the scanning or imaging components in Windows Vista. What's worse is that you can't set the default mail client to Windows Live Mail, or the default photo editing app to Windows Live Photo Gallery without extra registry editing, making OEM preinstallations overly complicated. Vista is MUCH easier to deploy than XP, but changing those specific options add the requisite complications to the procedure. The one thing Microsoft should do is completely do away with the "Vista versions" when the Live versions are installed. If there's some kind of shared API in the Vista version, as there is in Windows Mail, implement it in the Live version so you don't need the Vista versions of those programs anymore. Anybody with the Live versions absolutely doesn't need the originals, so why they keep them is still a mystery.
tbaley
on Jul 26, 2008
How about a connector for Entourage? Are the Mac users of Entourage left out in the cold? Anyone have a reference to solving sync problems on the Mac?
anonymous
on Apr 26, 2009
Ok.. I just installed Windows 7 build 7057 onto my 17″ macbook pro (early 2009 model). I got everything running except the wifi. It seems to show a live connection available but refuses to get online. I installed all the drives from my leopard 10. 5 cd
anonymous
on Jul 27, 2009
UPDATE: You can download the final released version of the Outlook Connector here or through Windows

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