The new features have been introduced to some users already

Nov 9, 2011 17:01 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft is in the process of rolling out a collection of new features to Windows Live Hotmail, making it easier for users to manage Newsletters, Deals, and other notifications.

The company already delivered insight into the upgrade, more than a month ago, at the start of October, but Dick Craddock - group program manager, Hotmail, revealed this week that all customers should be able to use the new Hotmail goodies within the coming weeks.

“The new release of Hotmail is rolling out now and will be available to all our customers within a few weeks,” Craddock revealed.

One key element of the upgrade is represented by the flagging mechanism that the software giant introduces to help customers no longer mark unread or move messages to certain folders in order to find them. The new Hotmail flags are also an improvement over traditional flags, the Redmond company said.

“Hotmail has made a simple and elegant change to the way flags work. Now when you flag an email, three things happen: it immediately moves to the top of your Inbox; it is marked as flagged, just like before; it shows up in the Flagged Quick View, just like before,” Craddock explained.

“Unflagging a message makes it go back to where it came from in the message list, and it’s easy to flag or unflag a message just by clicking on the flag icon in the message list. Flagged messages show up at the top of the Inbox even if they are in other folders, which makes it easy to stay organized and still keep important messages right up front.”

Users that don’t want to take advantage of the new flagging behavior can switch it off quite easily. All they need to do is clock on the collapse chevron in order to collapse the flagged area, and the old flagging mechanism will take over.

“If you want to turn the new flag behavior back on later, just go to options, and click on “Flagging” under the “Customizing Hotmail” section,” Craddock explained.

Power users can still take advantage of the old and new flagging behavior. Craddock’s advice is for them to create a special folder where to move specific flagged messages, and create a new Instant Action for that area of their inbox.