Hotmail to Outlook.com migration now complete

Microsoft claims it now has 400 million active Outlook.com users, after completing work on upgrading all of its Hotmail customers to the redesigned webmail platform.

The software giant confirmed the completion of its contentious Hotmail to Outlook.com upgrades in a blog post, where it revealed the process had required the migration of 150 petabyes of data.

"When Outlook.com came out of preview in February, it already had more than 60 million active accounts...[but] Hotmail was still one of the most widely used services, with over 300 million active accounts," the blog post stated.

"This meant communicating with hundreds of millions of people, upgrading all their mailboxes equalling more than 150 million gigabytes of data and making sure that every person's mail, calendar, contacts, folders and personal preferences were preserved.

"With your help, we were able to do all of that in just about six weeks," it added.

The blog post also acknowledges the upgrade has not been welcomed by everyone, something that has been borne out in many of the comments IT Pro has received from readers since Outlook.com first launched.

Many have complained about the product's new Windows 8-like interface, while others have experienced issues navigating the software, which IT Pro has sought to address here.

"Whenever a widely-used consumer service makes any substantial change, there will always be some folks that don't like it, and that shows up in the feedback," the blog post continues.

"Our belief is that as people start using the new experience, they will come to love it even more than they loved Hotmail."

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced that Skype would be imminently available within Outlook.com for a select group of users to preview, while the blog post also hints that other new features and functionality will be added in due course too.

"Thank you for all the feedback along the way and everything you did to help make Outlook.com the best and fastest growing personal email out there," the blog post continued.

"We're excited to keep hearing from you and there's a lot more to come. Welcome to the new Outlook.com and onwards to a billion inboxes!"