Register for Outlook.com Email Address – Windows Phone users told Don’t!

This morning I registered for my personal Outlook.com email address via Microsoft’s new email service — Outlook.com which has just launched. Thankfully I’ve set up a brand new account instead of moving my Hotmail address across as it sounds like Outlook is breaking phones and Xbox accounts.

I wanted to grab a personal Outlook.com address as well as wanting to have a play around with Microsoft’s new Metro-infused webmail client.

Microsoft proudly announces on its official blog that if you already have a Live or Hotmail account you can sign in using that and then, if you want, you can change your existing email address to one ending in outlook.com.

Don’t do this if you’re a Windows Phone user!

No matter how eager you are to flick your Live or Hotmail address to the new shiny Outlook one the big M warns that “On your phone, features that use this address will stop working, including Marketplace, Xbox LIVE, SkyDrive, email and others.” Hmmm……

Microsoft goes on to say that “To use these features again on your phone, you’d need to restore it to factory settings, which erases all personal content.”

In other words, despite Windows Phone being Microsoft’s own operating system, changing your phone’s Microsoft-branded email address to an Outlook.com one will completely bork most of your apps. Even your email!

Even though there are these ‘teething problems’ the official Twitter account is boasting that the service has already attracted 1 million sign-ups.

I’m keen to see if Outlook.com can better Gmail – I’m sure that if you’re hooked in to Microsoft’s other services such as Skydrive or Windows Phone then this will please you muchly.

You can also add contacts from social networks, including Facebook.

Microsoft has the same idea and has even provided a step-by-step guide for those who want to switch from Gmail to their new service.

Have you made the switch or registered for an Outlook.com account? Let me know what you think about it all 🙂