[mach1man]

Ok so I'm ready to take the dive into microsoft and go with a mircosoft email account, bing everything and what not. I have been researching what everyone has posted about google being evil and tracking everything so yes I want out of google!! I just don't know whats the easiest way to switch all of my emails from gmail to a microsoft account, I guess I'll make an outlook email address? And how do I switch my gamer tag from gmail to my new microsoft email account?

Thanks for all the help

[SinisterDuck]

I recently did the switch for my wife, so here's how I handled it . . .

Set her up with a new Outlook.com address.

Set her Gmail to forward to the Outlook address.

Exported Gmail contacts into Outlook.

She fortunately only had a few calendar appointments, so I manually entered those in the Outlook/Hotmail calendar.

Switched the settings on her iPhone accordingly from Gmail/Google Contacts/Calendar to MS Hotmail.

She is now all set up and doesn't notice the difference.

Let us know if you have any specific questions on switching/changing any of these, but they're pretty easy.

[mach1man]

Thank you soo much that seems really simple. I can though (when I find time and energy to) switch all of my emails to go to my new outlook address manually by going to their site. I currently use google chrome for a browser, I'm going to switch that too, who is firefox are they their own group no google help? Or should I just use Internet explorer for web browsing?

[12Danny123]

Thank you soo much that seems really simple. I can though (when I find time and energy to) switch all of my emails to go to my new outlook address manually by going to their site. I currently use google chrome for a browser, I'm going to switch that too, who is firefox are they their own group no google help? Or should I just use Internet explorer for web browsing?

in my opinion I think ie10 is very good. I have been using internet explorer 10 on windows 8 for over a month and its been very good.:-)

[tgp]

I have been researching what everyone has posted about google being evil and tracking everything so yes I want out of google!!

Just a hint; to get away from being tracked you will need to go offline completely. Even then, in today's world it is virtually impossible to be completely free of tracking. Everybody does it; Google is just more open about it.

[Jaybotics]

For anyone that is using Outlook.com and the email service, does anyone know if Microsoft is planning on updating the UI for the calendar? It just seems so dated compared to the other services Outlook.com offers.

[dharmababa]

Just a hint; to get away from being tracked you will need to go offline completely. Even then, in today's world it is virtually impossible to be completely free of tracking. Everybody does it; Google is just more open about it.

True, but try IE10 and turn on the tracking protection feature. If you add a few good lists (built by privacy advocates) you can get pretty far.

[daverath]

Yes, calendar will be updated to look like the other services

[BWIS]

A follow up clarification question....

I have a Live account, SkyDrive, WP7.5, XBOX Live, etc. All are currently tied to my @gmail.com account. I too want to be done with GMail and move everything to Outlook.com. I created an @hotmail.com address. However, I really just want to rename (?) my old account to the @hotmail.com. I have stuff on SkyDrive (plus it is much larger space than a new 7GB account), so I want the old @gmail.com login to be my @hotmail.com login. If I click on Account Settings --> Update Email Address, I get the following message.

The email address associated with your Microsoft account can't be changed
Warning: You might not want to change this email address if you've used it to set up a Windows Phone. On your phone, features that use this address will stop working, including Marketplace, Xbox LIVE, SkyDrive, email, and others. To use these features again on your phone, you'd need to restore it to factory settings, which erases all personal content.


However earlier, it had the same warning, but did have a spot for me to change the address. Can anyone help explain what might be happening, if it is possible for me to rename (?) the account, and what consequences this warning may mean with respect to my phone, SkyDrive, and/or XBOX Live account? Thank you in advance.

BWIS

[jdhooghe]

I got the same thing. I was told I needed to do a hard reset of my phone :/

[fwaits]

A follow up clarification question....

I have a Live account, SkyDrive, WP7.5, XBOX Live, etc. All are currently tied to my @gmail.com account. I too want to be done with GMail and move everything to Outlook.com. I created an @hotmail.com address. However, I really just want to rename (?) my old account to the @hotmail.com. I have stuff on SkyDrive (plus it is much larger space than a new 7GB account), so I want the old @gmail.com login to be my @hotmail.com login. If I click on Account Settings --> Update Email Address, I get the following message.

The email address associated with your Microsoft account can't be changed
Warning: You might not want to change this email address if you've used it to set up a Windows Phone. On your phone, features that use this address will stop working, including Marketplace, Xbox LIVE, SkyDrive, email, and others. To use these features again on your phone, you'd need to restore it to factory settings, which erases all personal content.


However earlier, it had the same warning, but did have a spot for me to change the address. Can anyone help explain what might be happening, if it is possible for me to rename (?) the account, and what consequences this warning may mean with respect to my phone, SkyDrive, and/or XBOX Live account? Thank you in advance.

BWIS

You can rename it, but due to how the account is linked to your WP, you will need to hard reset and add the newly named account back on the phone to get it to work.

[brmiller1976]

Just a hint; to get away from being tracked you will need to go offline completely. Even then, in today's world it is virtually impossible to be completely free of tracking. Everybody does it; Google is just more open about it.

That's flat-out false, especially in relation to Microsoft. Microsoft has been pretty loud about protecting user privacy and user data. It does not track users outside of Microsoft's own services, does not use tracking cookies, and implemented an extremely aggressive privacy dashboard in IE 10 for WP and Windows.

Compare that to Google, whose browser won't even function if it cannot "call home" to report private user data.