"I know Fred mentioned it in an email ... But where is this message?" "
Fortunately, Windows Live Hotmail has a built-in search engine that can help you find the needle in the haystack..
Search for mails in Windows Live Hotmail
To find emails in Windows Live Hotmail:
- Type your search term in the "Search for a message" field.
- Press "Enter".
Advanced search in Windows Live Hotmail
To find emails in Windows Live Hotmail more precisely:
Click on the "Show advanced search" button. (The button has two stemless arrows that point downward.)
Enter the desired search criteria:
From: Search for senders of messages.
To: Search for recipients of messages in the "To:" field; Windows Live Hotmail will not search for "Cc:" and "Bcc:" fields. (See below for finding Cc: recipients.)
Subject: Search for message subjects..
- Windows Live Hotmail will search for messages that contain all of the words found in the "Subject:" field. You don't need to enter the words in order or enter a sentence.
- You can search for messages with one or two words in the "Subject:" field by combining them with (in capital letters) "OR"; for example "mail OR e-mail" will find e-mails including "mail" or "e-mail" in the line "Subject:".
- Parentheses allow you to combine more terms.
Folder: Search for all mails in the selected folder or in "All" folders.
Keywords: Search anywhere in the message (including sender, recipients, and subject; excluding attachments)..
- Windows Live Hotmail will automatically search for messages that contain all of the words.
- You can find messages with one or two words by combining them with "OR" (capital letters are important; "or" will find the word "or").
- Combine more terms with parentheses.
Date between ___ and ___ - Find only emails received or sent after the first date (not included) and before the second date (included).
- Enter dates like "mm / dd / yyyy"; for example, January 15, 2003 is "01/15/2003", or "1/15/2003" or "1/15/03" or "1/15/3".
- You can also use month names and their abbreviations; in this case, reverse the month and the date: for example, January 15, 2003 could be "January 15 2003" or "Jan 15 2003".
- If you do not complete the year, Windows Live Hotmail will assume the current year and January 15th of the current year can be entered as "1/15", "January 15", "Jan 15", or "15 1 ”.
- If you don't complete the day, Windows Live Hotmail will assume the first of the given month.
With attachments - If this option is checked, Windows Live Hotmail will only show messages with attachments.
Click on "Search".
Windows Live Hotmail search operators
To find specific emails in Windows Live Hotmail, you can also use the following search operators in the "Search for message" field:
From: Find senders.
To: Look for "To:" lines.
Cc: Search for "Cc:" fields.
Subject: Search for "Subject" email fields.
Folder: Search for the specific folder.
Before: Find messages sent or received before the specific date (included).
After: Find messages sent or received after the specific date (not included).
See above (under “Date between ___ and ___”) for date formats.
With attachments - Show only messages with attachments.
OR - Combine search terms so that results include either or both.
AND - Combine search terms so that all results include both terms; Windows Live Hotmail uses "AND" by default.
() - Group search terms by priority.
Search for mails in MSN Hotmail
To find messages in MSN Hotmail:
- Select "Mail" from the top Hotmail navigation bar.
- Click on the "Find" button.
In most cases, just searching for the address fields and the subject line will work well (unless you're looking for what is only mentioned in the body of an email).
Search results will display as an MSN Hotmail folder and you can use these messages as usual from the MSN Hotmail inbox.
