How to get the Outlook.com email address you want

Microsoft just completely overhauled Hotmail, rebranding it as Outlook and moving the whole email service to Outlook.com. The app is actually much improved, but longtime Hotmail users will probably have tons of questions — the most important being: What’s my email address now?

It’s the same as it ever was — if your address was “my.email@hotmail.com,” you’ll still receive email there for as long as you want, all accessible at Outlook.com (and Hotmail.com for a time).

But now that Outlook.com is live, you’ll probably want that same address in the Outlook.com domain — i.e. my.email@outlook.com. You might think that Microsoft would automatically reserve that address for you, but it doesn’t. You have to do that yourself. Follow the gallery above for step-by-step instructions on how to do it.

Microsoft says you can select just five Outlook aliases a year (an anti-spam and anti-hoarding restriction), so choose wisely. And be quick! Get the Outlook email address you want before someone else does.