When I was a kid, I used to love “Choose Your Own Adventure” books. I liked being in control of my own destiny, and if I made a wrong choice (e.g. was eaten by a dragon), I could simply flip back a few pages and pick the better option. Well, we’re getting ready to roll out our M10 Milestone; and much of the great work we’ve done in M10 will empower our users to Choose Their Own Adventure. A few folks will start seeing M10 today and we’ll roll it out to more and more of the beta population over the coming weeks.

As you may know, we built two different views into Windows Live Hotmail: the classic version which looks and feels pretty much like MSN Hotmail (but better), and the full version which has many whiz bang features such as the reading pane, drag and drop, keyboard shortcuts, etc. Both versions are super fast, very safe, and of course simple to use. However, we realize that among our users, personal choice is very important. That’s why we let you customize your inbox with the color that’s right for you, and let you pick your reading pane style (in the full version).

And that’s why we’ve now made it even easier for you to pick the best view for you, and choose between the classic or full version of Hotmail. In M10, you can switch between the classic and full versions on the Today page (beneath the storage meter), the inbox (bottom), and of course in options. Generally we recommend the classic version for customers using a narrowband/slower connection to access their email, and the full version for folks on broadband. Test drive both views to figure out which works best for you!

Here are a few other things we’ve done in M10:

• The first and most obvious thing you might notice is that we’re now officially Windows Live Hotmail. Very exciting for us but there’s even more under the covers.
• We’ve made M10 faster… especially on the classic version.
• We’ve also made it more reliable!
• Classic version enhancements include:
  • Spell check… we know you’ve missed it. Its back!
  • The Photo upload control which lets you edit photos and insert them inline in your email
  • Bi-Directional language support (for our users who read Arabic and Hebrew)
• Improvements to the safety bar to make it even easier for you to make your mail safer every day
• Pick your view with the version picker (classic or full) so that brand new sign ups to Windows Live Hotmail can choose which one to try first
• We’ve also made our checkboxes more “forgiving” for those of you who complained that you accidentally unchecked your messages… this one’s for you!

Again, thanks to the millions of folks who have been test driving Windows Live Hotmail and giving us your feedback. Hopefully, you’ll agree that we’ve come a long way. And yes, there is more to come (lots of great stuff I know many of you will love) so stay tuned!

- Richard Sim, Senior Product Manager

Source: MailCall: Your mail is here, come and get it