A new version of the Outlook Hotmail Connector has been released.
Checking the about box will reveal the version number 14.0.6106.5001.
The main new feature is that it now supports HTTPS, which means that all communication between Outlook and Windows Live services (Mail, Calendar and Contacts) is now being encrypted and thus fully secure. There is no need to change any settings to make it work; just install the latest version of the Outlook Hotmail Connector and you’re set.
Note:
You could see some Send/Receive errors and Outlook reporting “Limited Connectivity” for some time after installing this Outlook Hotmail Connector version. This is due to the fact that your old non-HTTPS Cookies need to expire first. This will fix itself over time. For details see the Send/Receive errors section.
Several other fixes are included in this release as well, including a fix for characters which are valid in Outlook but invalid in Windows Live Hotmail. Also, flagged items with reminders will no longer prompt even after it was dismissed. For more see; Full list of fixes.
Download: Outlook Hotmail Connector 32-bit
Download: Outlook Hotmail Connector 64-bit
View: Release information on the Outlook Team Blog
Note: The 64-bit version of the Outlook Hotmail Connector is only needed when you use a 64-bit version of Outlook 2010.
Send/Receive errors
Directly after updating, there seem to be some network issues with this update. In that case you can get the send/receive errors listed below and Outlook could show that it is connected with Limited Connectivity. While annoying, it doesn’t seem to affect functionality (other than still connecting via HTTP).
These errors are due to the fact that your old non-HTTPS Cookies need to expire first. This will fix itself over time and then you’ll automatically connect via the secure HTTPS protocol and no longer via HTTP.
Note: The old Cookies are also stored server-side, so deleting your local Cookies from the Internet Explorer History will not solve it sooner.
These Send/Receive errors will go away automatically after some time.
Full list of fixes
As published on the Outlook Team Blog;
Overall
- All communications between Outlook and Windows Live services (Mail, Calendar, Contacts) use the HTTPS protocol.
- We fixed an issue in which the user was prompted to remove folders that used names longer than 30 characters or that contained invalid characters even after the folder was removed.
- We fixed several stability and reliability issues.
Calendar
- Some calendar meetings and appointments series with specific exception patterns caused error 8004a164 during first synchronization which blocked additional calendar synchronizations.
- Users couldn’t remove recipients of a meeting series from an exception to the series.
- Flagged mail items would continue to prompt with a reminder value even after it was dismissed.
- We fixed an issue in which users couldn’t send email messages if the recipient address was copied and then pasted from a contact.
Contacts
- We fixed an issue in which street address fields only synchronized from the server one time.
