It took me a little while to figure out a problem I was having with Windows Live Messenger today. In the interest of perhaps saving people some time if they have the same problem, I’ll list here the simple solution I found.
A small minority of people who are using Windows Live Messenger signed up using a non-Microsoft e-mail address. I am one of those people. I originally used a free, web-based e-mail account to signed up for what was then called MSN Messenger. This was back in 2001. Since then, the free e-mail service was discontinued. For years, my Messenger account was associated with a non-working e-mail address. People would try to send me e-mail via my Messenger account and I would never get it. Actually, it’s kind of silly for them to try to send me e-mail that way, everyone knows what my preferred e-mail address is.
Anyways, if you want to change the e-mail address that is associated with your Messenger account, follow these steps:
- Don’t bother using the Windows Live Messenger application. Just to be safe, sign out of Messenger while you do this.
- Point your browser towards http://accounts.live.com.
- In the Windows ID field, enter in the e-mail address associated with your Messenger account, the password is your Messenger password
- Once logged in, you should see all sorts of interesting stats about your account
- Click “change” next to the Windows Live ID field
- Follow the instructions presented on-screen
You can choose to change the e-mail address to any address you want. It will take at least an hour, if not more, for the change over to occur. Your Messenger contacts will most likely need to sign out and sign back in to see the modified account.
And that’s how babies are made.