Problem setting up new Outlook account

littlerock

I don't currently have an Outlook account (or its predecessor, hotmail account). I just tried to set up a new Outlook account on my pc and got the error message "Microsoft Account is unavailable. Please try later."

Anyone know what causes this? So far as I am aware, I filled in all the required details correctly.

tronator

littlerock wrote: »

I don't currently have an Outlook account (or its predecessor, hotmail account). I just tried to set up a new Outlook account and got the error message Microsoft Account is unavailable.

Anyone know what causes this? So far as I am aware, I filled in all the required details correctly.

Are you talking about Outlook or Outlook.com?

I don't know who at Microsoft had the bright idea to call two different things almost the same...

littlerock

Hotmail has been replaced by Outlook and that is what I am trying to use to set up an email account.

John_Gray

littlerock wrote: »

Hotmail has been replaced by Outlook and that is what I am trying to use to set up an email account.

NO!
Hotmail has been replaced by Outlook.com, as tronator has said.

Outlook is the email component of the Professional versions of Microsoft Office, rather like Windows Live Mail, Thunderbird, and so on.

Yes, it was the popularity of Outlook-the-program which probably caused Microsoft to choose the confusing name "outlook.com" for their replacement email system.

Jivesinger

littlerock wrote: »

I don't currently have an Outlook account (or its predecessor, hotmail account). I just tried to set up a new Outlook account on my pc and got the error message "Microsoft Account is unavailable. Please try later."

Are you trying to add a new User account for a Windows 8/8.1 laptop? Or just set up an email account which won't be used to login?

If it's the latter, which web address did you use? I think the correct one is: https://signup.live.com

littlerock

Getting very confused. I seem to have set up the account as it is now there and I can log in, although when I originally tried to set it up yesterday I got an email message saying MS Account was not available....

mrochester

littlerock wrote: »

Getting very confused. I want to set up a new email account on what used to be Hotmail (now Outlook.com?) It will not be used to log in. The signup link given above is to create some sort of Outlook account using an existing email address.....

Go to https://www.outlook.com and click 'sign up now'.