Apr 1, 2011 13:45 GMT  ·  By

Internet Explorer 9 enables users to pin sites on the Taskbar just as they would any other application, but only as long as they are running Windows 7. Windows Live Hotmail makes no exception to this rule, and the Redmond company seems committed to investing continually in pushing the Hotmail user experience on Windows 7 to the next level, for customers leveraging IE9.

In this regard, the software giant has introduced a new app-like feature to its email service, allowing Hotmail to deliver notifications directly on the Windows 7 Taskbar, provided that it was pinned.

“We’ve been working on taking the next step and supporting notifications. Some of you may have seen this in the past few days, and we’re finishing the release of this feature today,” revealed Dick Craddock, Group Program Manager, Hotmail.

“This means when you’re signed into Hotmail and you’ve pinned it, we’ll show you a notification of how many new messages have arrived since you last checked your inbox.”

Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get this working, so my best guess is that the update introducing this feature is still rolling out at this point in time.

This is generally the case with all Windows live Hotmail refreshes which Microsoft doesn’t push to all users simultaneously.

Of course, some IE9 users running the browser on top of Windows 7 might already be familiar with some enhancements to Hotmail introduced specifically to take advantage of the intimate connection between the latest releases of IE and Windows.

“Most of you know that you can now launch Hotmail just like you launch other Windows applications by pinning Hotmail to your Windows taskbar. To do this, sign in to Hotmail in IE9 and go to your Inbox. Now, drag the Hotmail tab from the address bar in IE down to the taskbar, and drop it there,” Craddock added.

“Once you’ve pinned Hotmail, you can check your email just by clicking the icon – no need to open IE and navigate to a bookmark. Hotmail also uses IE 9’s new jump list feature to let you compose a new email or go straight to your Calendar or Contacts just by right-clicking on the Hotmail icon in the taskbar.”

Windows Internet Explorer 9 RTW for Windows 7 and Windows 7 SP1 is available for download here.

Windows Internet Explorer 9 RTW for Windows Vista SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2 is available for download here.

Windows Internet Explorer 9 RTW for Windows Vista SP2 64-bit edition and Windows Server 2008 SP2 64-bit edition is available for download here.

Windows Internet Explorer 9 RTW for Windows 7 64-bit edition, Windows 7 SP1 64-bit edition, Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit edition and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 64-bit edition is available for download here.