Change Hotmail password
When you first sign up to create a Hotmail account, you will be asked to pick a password to protect access to your email account. Fortunately, you can change your Hotmail password anytime you like after that. In fact, it is recommended to regularly change your password for security reasons, especially if you sometimes use Windows Live Hotmail from a public computer or other unfamiliar location (like school, work, the public library, etc.) In this tutorial, we will show you how to change your Hotmail password.
How do I change my Hotmail password?
Follow these steps to reset and choose a new password for your Hotmail account:
- First, sign in to your Hotmail account; once you are in, click on the "Options" menu in the top right corner of the screen, and choose "More options", as shown on the screenshot below:
- When the "Hotmail Options" screen loads next, you will find a section labeled "Managing your account". Click on the "Account details (password, aliases, time zone)" link:
- To protect your account, and prevent someone else from changing your password or any profile information, Hotmail will now ask you to "Retype your password" in the next screen - this is normal: enter your current password, and click on the "Sign in" button.
- When the "Account overview" page has loaded, click on the "Change" link next to your current password, under the section called "Account information":
- When the Hotmail "Change your password" screen has loaded, you will be presented with three text fields: inside "Old password", enter your current Hotmail password. The Windows Live ID (email address) for which you are about to change password is listed above, so use it to make sure that you are logged in to the correct Hotmail account.
- Then, enter the password you want to change to inside "Type new password" text field. As you type, Windows Live Hotmail will help you determine how safe and secure your new password is with the "Password strength" progress bar. Use uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as numbers, to make your new password even harder to guess or hack. The length of the password is also important (the shorter the password, the easier it is to guess).
- To avoid typos, confirm your choice by re-entering the new password inside the "Retype new password" text field. (For more information on "Make my password expire every 72 days", please read our "Make Hotmail automatically ask you to change your password" tutorial.)
- Once you are done, click on the "Save" button: Windows Live will bring you back to the previous screen, and update your credentials immediately.
This is all it takes to change Hotmail password! For more information about Microsoft's Windows Live webmail service, check out our extensive Hotmail Tutorial.
Tip: when you change your Hotmail password, keep in mind that it will also affect your Windows Live profile as a whole; in other words, you will need to use your new password for other services like Windows Live Messenger, online office documents, Hotmail calendar, Windows Live photos, etc. If you have setup your Hotmail account in an email program designed for it, learn how to change Outlook Express password or change Windows Live Mail password. For an in-depth overview of login and password protection, see Windows Live Hotmail Sign in.
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