I’m switching to Gmail. How do I close down my Outlook account?

Whereas Hotmail provided users with a chronological view of ever email they had received, Outlook.com groups together correspondents that have been sent by the same contact into an ongoing thread, making it difficult for users to pick out individual messages.

It's a similar system to the one employed by Gmail and the online version of Microsoft's corporate Outlook product, but if you're used to seeing your emails lined up in a linear fashion it may take a little while to get used to.

Caroline Donnelly is the news and analysis editor of IT Pro and its sister site Cloud Pro, and covers general news, as well as the storage, security, public sector, cloud and Microsoft beats. Caroline has been a member of the IT Pro/Cloud Pro team since March 2012, and has previously worked as a reporter at several B2B publications, including UK channel magazine CRN, and as features writer for local weekly newspaper, The Slough and Windsor Observer. She studied Medical Biochemistry at the University of Leicester and completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Magazine Journalism at PMA Training in 2006.