I know what you mean about being in a rut, stuck with the tools you're familiar with rather than using newer, possibly better applications and products. Heck, my folks are still using AOL for their email, something I - as a geeky tech guy - find a bit of an embarrassment. (sorry, Dad!)

On the other hand, much of what I use is the same as I used 12, 24 even 36 months ago. I first signed up for Gmail back when you had to beg for an invitation from a well-connected friend, and then I shared hundreds of invitations with others until it opened up. The oldest email I have in my Gmail archive? April 24, 2004. Jeez!

You're in luck with Hotmail / Live.com because while Microsoft hasn't been demonstrating its usual expertise with software in terms of its Internet-based offerings, the Hotmail team has been slowly but surely adding all sorts of neat enhancements and capabilities to the system. The themes aren't as comprehensive as Gmail either, but still...

Start out by logging in to your Hotmail account and looking on the top right:

See that "Options" menu? Click on it and you'll see a menu show up:

Now as you move your cursor over the themes shown you should find that your screen actually changes to match. It's a bit jarring, but a very simple way to see how it'll look!

Here's an example: I started out with the "fields" theme, which is why the first illustration is against a yellow background, but here I've moved over "Flourish":

Again, not quite as dramatic as some of the more esoteric Gmail themes, but still a chance for you to make things a bit different.

I should note that when I clicked on "More Themes" nothing happened. Hopefully you'll have more luck and find lots of additional themes available! :-)