How to add a Microsoft email account to Outlook 2016

Question

I saw an old post describing the steps to add an msn.com email account to Microsoft Outlook. It had to be done manually selecting the first option and using blu404.m.hotmail as the server. If I try to do the same, however, I get an error message saying that the server can't be reached.

How can I add a Microsoft email account (hotmail/outlook) to desktop Outlook? I can use this email account in Outlook Live, (it shows Outlook Mail in the upper left corner of my emails), but I can't add it to Outlook 2016 from Office Professional. I was able to add an @att.net email account, but I don't know what to do for a Microsoft account.

If I try to add it without any manual steps I get an error message saying (more or less): "an encrypted email did not work, try and unencrypted email", but that does not work either. Clearly, some manual configuration is needed: please guide me along the required steps. In case it matters, my password is 8 characters long.

Answer 1

See here for instructions on configuring Outlook with various webmail providers, including outlook.com.

Outlook.com accounts can be configured as Exchange accounts in Outlook.

If that fails, you should try manual configuration with these parameters, found in the Microsoft forum:

IMAP
Server: imap-mail.outlook.com
Port: 993 SSL

SMTP
Server: smtp.live.com
Port: 587 STARTTLS

These settings have been tested with a hotmail account.

Answer 2

In Outlook 2016 go to Manual setup or additional server types>>Outlook.com or Exchange Active sync compatible service and add your email address as both E-mail and Username. For mail server address add "eas.outlook.com" and enter your password.

Warning!: If you have enabled 2 step verification on your account, your password doesn't work. You have to go to Microsoft Account AppPassword Generator (asks you to sign in, if not already) and copy the generated app password into your password field.