For some time, Hotmail users have been able to receive email from other accounts within their Hotmail account. Microsoft have just enabled a feature that makes it possible to send email from any email address via Hotmail – this is a bid to make Hotmail more like an online version of Outlook.

The new feature comes as a result of the fact that most people, have one email address that they use most of the time and others that are used for specific tasks such as signing up for web forums. Adding a new email address to your Hotmail account is a simple process, and once complete you will be able to choose which address should be used to send individual emails as well as indicating which address should be used by default.

To access the new POP features, click the Options link to the upper right of the Hotmail page and select More Options from the menu that appears. In the ‘Managing your account’ section look under the ‘You can send mail from these accounts’ heading and click the ‘Add another account to send mail from’ link to be guided through the process of importing your emails.

Hotmail’s new feature means that you can easily access all of your emails in once location without the need to sign in and out of different services. As is often the case with Hotmail upgrades, the new feature may take a little while to roll out, but the process has started now so if you are unable to add new email addresses straight away, keep checking as the feature will be enabled very soon.