Hotmail password - Forgot your login details... retrieve!

One of the most common problems in not being login to Hotmail is the loss of password. Maybe you've forgotten it or maybe someone's hacked into your account (God forbid) and changed your login information. Here are simple step by step instructions on gaining access to your email account once again.

Forgot your password link at the Hotmail login page

If you are not being able to sign in at your Hotmail account the service displays a "Forgot your password" link just below the login fields. Clicking this link is the first step in retrieving the forgotten password of your email box.

You come to the Reset your password screen. Enter your Windows Live ID (your full email address) and the security text and then hit the "Continue" button. The security text is the image you see with wavy alphabet and numbers. Why do you need to enter this text? To prove to Hotmail that you are a human. The point is, wavy text can be read and understood by humans but will pose problems for automated programs. "Bad guys" create such programs to gain access or change passwords of email accounts. By the way, if you find the wavy text incomprehensible, click on the button with two arrows to refresh and get a more legible image. If that too doesn't work well for you, use the button with the speaker image to hear an audio clip.

Two ways to get hold of your Hotmail password

You will now be offered two choices - you can either retrieve the password using your location information and answering the security question you set at the time of creating a Hotmail account OR having the password reset information sent to your alternate email. The second method will work only when you have supplied another email address at the time you made your Hotmail account. If the Hotmail account was your first email address, well, this option is meaningless.

Enter your location information and answer security question

Let us move ahead and try to retrieve the Hotmail password you forgot using your location details and security question.

Select your Country/region from the drop down, enter your postal code, select State/Territory and fill in the answer to the security question. Please note, the location fields will differ depending on your address and what you supplied at the time of account creation. The security question is shown; you simply need to answer it.

Assuming you've been successful in providing Hotmail with your location information (the same what you had entered at the time you created the account) and the answer to the security question, you shall arrive at the final screen in which you can change the password.

Answers to common problems

What if you forgot the answer to your security question?

To reset your password, you DO need to answer the security question you have set at the time you created your Hotmail account. By the way, the answer is case-insensitive. If you cannot get this right, I am sorry to tell you but you are out of luck (unless you retrieve password information at your alternate mail address). But having said that, don't be disheartened so quickly, give it a few tries.

Forgot the location you fed at account creation

Recollect the place you were residing when you created the account. After all, how many locations would you have changed in the course of a few years?