How to change Hotmail Layout from Advertising Hell!

[CBHagman]

Tonight I came home and signed in to my Hotmail account and found that the layout had changed (I'd made no alterations and done no customizing since I'd signed in earlier that day). Now I can barely read the subject lines or the bodies of new e-mails because about a quarter of the page is taken up with an animated advertisement on the right side of the page. This is true in both Firefox and Internet Explorer.

I tried various customizing options but still couldn't find anything that would adjust the layout to something more readable, and of course the help and feedback options are of no use whatsoever.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thank you.

[Why Syzygy]

1. Is it an overlay ad?

There are lots of those that have 'X' or 'close' somewhere buried in the ad?

[CBHagman]

2. I've tried that.

Thus far there doesn't seem to be a way to disable or eliminate the thing; ads simply take up a column of the page. Content varies.

[Why Syzygy]

3. A geek

might recommend logging out of the account, closing your brower(s) and clearing the cache. Otherwise, it may be just a hotmail glitch. amazon had a glaring flaw with their preview reader once for months. It was like no one at the store noticed. I loathe hotmail, but find gmail user friendly.

*Another option would be download hotmail into Outlook Express.

[canetoad]

4. You could try

a couple of Firefox add-ons to see if they make any difference: AdBlock Plus and NoScript.

NoScript is a beauty, but you would have to tweak what is allowed on the page and what is not in case you block necessary functions of Hotmail. Right click on Script button on bottom right hand corner of page to do so.

Or....you could always reject the capitalist, corporate, mass media providers and go for something like Fastmail.fm for your web mail.....:)

[yy4me]

5. When I signed into Hotmail yesterday, there was one of those

"read this, new and improved" type pages advising me of the newly revamped Hotmail. You are right about the ads being annoying. I also dislike the fact that they have changed the line-up of the folders, no lines to separate folders and text of current e-mails. My contact list is now out of sight at the bottom.

Sometimes the old ways are better.

Box at bottom: Do not show me this page again. Darn right.

[LSdemocrat]

6. Use Firefox with the AdBlock Plus

This may seem drastic, but I use Firefox with the AdBlock plus add-on and I see zero ads using Hotmail.

[CBHagman]

7. I just tried that.

It's interesting. I added what I thought was the Adblock Plus add-on and at first had a third of the page in code (with my subject lines in e-mails as abbreviated as ever) and now there's advertising in the space, though simple (i.e., not the animated crap or shots of big stomachs). I think the Marquis de Sade is behind this latest Hotmail layout. People are complaining, from what I see. And I didn't have the advertising rammed down my throat until I signed in last night.

Thanks to everyone who has been trying to help, especially since you do it out of the generosity of your hearts. It kills me to think someone was paid to screw up the Hotmail page with the ugly ads.

[ChromeFoundry]

8. I've resorted to using GreaseMonkey

to disable all the ads in hotmail. I've even set my theme to be mostly black&white.

It's a lot of work which is usually lost every time they change the appearance... but it is an option.

Do you know much about programming or javascript?

[CBHagman]

9. You can't even imagine how little I know.

Thanks for the suggestion, though.

I've checked at the Hotmail community postings and found that there are complaints coming in. I've also started complaining to individual advertisers...

[ChromeFoundry]

10. Hotmail now supports POP3

so you can view your Hotmail in GMail or any other POP3 supporting mail-client!

POP server: pop3.live.com (Port 995)
POP SSL required? Yes
User name: Your Windows Live ID, for example [e-mail]
Password: The password you usually use to sign in to Hotmail or Windows Live
SMTP server: smtp.live.com (Port 25)
Authentication required? Yes (this matches your POP username and password)
TLS/SSL required? Yes

[CBHagman]

11. Thanks for posting that.

I will look into it.

By the way, I've given feedback to Hotmail (without profanity, of course :evilgrin:) and all they do is make sympathetic noises and promise to discuss it with the design team. :eyes: Someone gets paid to muck up the system!

[Why Syzygy]

12. pop is the way to go. imo

I like gmail, even though it does have adverts. They aren't cumbersome.
I don't like Outlook Express or Thunderbird. And, my Outlook is way overfull, so I just use webmail.

[CBHagman]

13. Now AOL has done something equally odd.

I just noticed that AOL has altered its design for e-mail accounts as well. Good luck trying to figure out where to click to sign in to your account!

Is everyone in the design teams taking stupidity lessons this week or something?