Bugs Set Windows Live Mail Beta Back One Step

Microsoft acknowledged on Friday problems with its most recent beta release of Windows Live Mail, the company’s revamp of the Hotmail hosted e-mail service.

Live Mail has been restored to an earlier release because of bugs with the newest version, M6, wrote Ben Poon, a program manager with Windows Live Mail, on a company blog. The Russian-language version is also affected. “We’ll bring that right back, too,” he wrote.

Firefox browser users, however, will see the “Classic Hotmail” interface for now because of the rollback, he wrote. Microsoft planned to add support for Firefox in the M6 release.

Microsoft plans several changes in the M6 version, including extending from 30 days to 120 days the time allotted from when an account expires after it isn’t used. Other features include overall faster performance, signature support and color-scheme changes.

Users have reported various bugs in the beta version on Microsoft’s Windows Live Mail blog. Some users who signed up for the beta release reported troubles with switching back to the older version.

Microsoft has cautioned beta version users that it’s still resolving problems.

-Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service

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