Is it possible to change wording of my email address?

[Swerving]

or will I have to close it and open up another account instead?

My current hotmail email address gives too much personal information and I would like to alter it, thereby keeping all the stuff I have collected in there and not have to start from scratch.

Any help would be much appreciated thanks.

You will have to make another account, but there's no reason to close the other one first - just use it as an archive, if you see what I mean, for all the things you've got stored in there. You might have to log in once a month or so to make sure it stays active (I don't use hotmail so don't know how often you'd have to log in, much prefer Gmail - have a look at it if you'll be making a new account anyway). Should also be possible to set it up so that anything coming to your old address is automatically forwarded to the new one, so you don't miss email if someone doesn't have your new address.

What is it exactly what you want to change? Is the the entire @hotmail.com / @live.com bit, or is it the name that is displayed?

With Windows Live (so live.com) you can add another Windows Live email address to your existing account. Windows Live uses Hotmail for email, so I wonder if Hotmail also gives you that option. If I try to go to Hotmail.com or Hotmail.co.uk they both take me to Live.com, so I guess it's all Windows Live now. Do you see Windows Live when you try to access Hotmail?

To add an email address in Windows Live, go to ManageAssocIds - use that link, otherwise whilst viewing the Inbox, look top Right for Options, then select More Options, then select Account Details, then scroll down and select Your Email Addresses.

Naoko I will have a look at Gmail. What is it that you like about it?

nannynick its just the words [email protected] that I'd like to change.
I dont think I am with Windows Live. I see it on the left side of where I log in
though.

Click the link I gave, maybe it will work and let you create another email address for your account.

Gmail is fantastic I use that a lot. It's very similar to Hotmail but to me it just seems easier to use somehow. It integrates with other google products, so I can have an e-mail arrive and create a Google calendar entry from that for example.

I like the clear interface, and the fact that it has options to change some of the interface too if you'd prefer. The storage is enormous, I haven't deleted an email in 3 years and I'm nowhere near the end of my storage space. It belongs to Google, so its search facility is top notch - coupled with the fact that you don't need to delete anything, ever, that means as long as I can vaguely remember what the email I want was about, the search box will pull it up for me. Spam filter is pretty good too, very rarely misses anything even on the account I'm not so careful about giving out, and on only one or two occasions in the years I've had it has it flagged something as spam that wasn't.

It also has Google calendar and Google documents built into it, so you can immediately view any attachments someone sends you (or just download them to your PC if you'd prefer) and add appointments to a calendar if someone emails you to arrange something. In my case this then also synchs to my phone which will proceed to text me about it three hours in advance so I don't forget, but that's probably not useful to people who are less scatterbrained than me some people.

I probably sound like some kind of crazed Google evangelist here :o but I do just find it incredibly helpful!