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How do I disable marketing promos from Live.com?

I get all sorts of spam from my Microsoft Live.com membership. I just want to keep my Hotmail account active since I've had it since I was in high school, but I don't want to have to weed through all these promo messages, etc. Can I turn these off? I know there used to be a way...


Dave's Answer:

So you're still on Hotmail, are you? Here's an interesting test to perform: from your Hotmail account, send yourself a message to your own Hotmail email addr. I bet it'll automatically be categorized as spam by Hotmail. Think about that: even the Live.com team recognizes that most mail from @hotmail.com tends to be spam, not legit mail. Still want that account?

Okay, okay, that's probably not fair as a test. I admit it. Still, it's interesting!

Now, it wasn't that long ago that the Live.com team rolled out the much improved user interface and user experience of Live.com, including Hotmail, but along the way they did move a lot of settings around. As with AOL accounts, the Live.com team doesn't really want you to disable the marketing messages anyway, because that's a revenue stream for them.

So it was just luck that I bumped into the setting last time I was poking around with my own Hotmail account, and here's how you can find it too.

When you're logged in to your account, look on the top right corner. You'll see this:

ms live marketing privacy 1

Choose "View your account", as I have done here. Now you'll see a ton of options, really a rather bewildering set of options. Buried in it is "Marketing preferences":

ms live marketing privacy 2

Click on that and, surprise, there are all sorts of things you need to actively opt out of (yup, by default, they're all selected for your account):

ms live marketing privacy 3

Read about each, think about it, and if they aren't what you want to receive uncheck those particular boxes, then click "Save".

Done! Now, about that Hotmail account...


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Categorized: Computer and Internet Basics , Windows PC Help   (Article 9522, Written by )
Tagged: gmail, google mail, hotmail, live.com, spam, yahoo mail
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Reader Comments To Date: 1

Ken B said, on July 29, 2010 2:12 PM:

I'm curious about the spam filtering from one hotmail account to a different hotmail account. The filter may be "email from yourself", which many spammers use to get past spam filters, as many people whitelist their own address. (After all, how many e-mails do you send to yourself, versus how many spams with "from" forged the same as the "to" address?)

Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!











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