BlogSynthesis

How to blog better

Updated on October 24, 2015

How to setup Microsoft Outlook custom domain for free email hosting?

Summary: Follow these simple steps to setup Microsoft outlook custom domain for email hosting. This is still free and can be used for unlimited users. So, go for outlook custom domain for you blog and business.

If you are looking for a custom domain email on a reliable host for free, then Microsoft Outlook is the best free solution. Microsoft Outlook custom domain allow 50 accounts/domain for your personal or small business use. If you need more than 50 accounts per domain then you will have to signup Office 365, which is quite costly at the moment. If you want to be email provider then Microsoft Outlook for custom domain is also best choice. You may do this without spending a single penny.

IMPORTANT: Microsoft has stopped new signup for free email hosting. If you are looking for another free alternative then Zoho Mail could be an option. It offers 20 free email accounts. Check top 6 free and paid email hosting solutions. For those who already have a free account, should create as much as account they need in future. Since you will no longer be able create new accounts in near future.

Outlook.com no longer offers support for new custom domain sign ups. New customers looking to manage custom domains are encouraged to use Office 365, Microsoft’s premium online service, which also includes enterprise-class mail, collaboration and communication tools.

Thanks to “Raja” for reporting us.

Recently, Google has stopped offering Google Apps for free. They charges are pretty high for any type of organizations. Well, I will not compare between the two services in the topic, but just helping you to configure Microsoft Outlook custom domain for free email. But first discuss about the features what Microsoft offers for free.

  • Email hosting
  • Maps
  • Profiles
  • Photos
  • SkyDrive
  • Groups
  • Calender.

All services are free and can be offered from a custom domain or sub-domain.

Setup Microsoft Outlook custom domain for email hosting:

Step 1:

Go to https://domains.live.com/Signup/SignupDomain.aspx. Fill the domain name in the box. If you don’t have any domain and want to purchase then you may buy from any Microsoft partners or buy from GoDaddy, Name.com or Dreamhost are best in the segment.

outlook-custom-domain1

Don’t forget to check “Set up Outlook.com for my domain” in “Choose mail service for your domain” on the same page [As shown in the image above]. You may also change this setting later, but who want to do that!  Now click “Continue”.

Step 2:

In the next step, you will be ask to setup domain administrator. [A domain administrator will be responsible for all activity in the Outlook custom domain account]. I will recommend you to use an existing account or account from outside the custom domain. Check “Sign in with an existing Microsoft account” and hit continue to login existing account. You may also sign up for a new outlook.com account if you don’t have any.

outlook-custom-domain2

After logging in to account Microsoft will ask you to review the settings and accept agreement just hit “I Accept” after review it.

outlook-custom-domain-agg

Step 3: Verifying domain and set up MX record

To verify domain name you will need to goto your domain registrar and add some records.

Add a txt record which will be in v=msv1 t=example, and

MX record which will be in “example.msv1.invalid”. Note the “example” part will be same.

You may refer to your domain registrar help topics for any help in configuring TXT and MX record. Now you will have to wait for sometime, until DNS is propagating across the globe. It may take from few seconds to 48 hrs. After some time hit “Refresh” button in the yellow alert box. When your domain got verified the domain will be ready to use and you may create your first free custom email on outlook.com platform.

outlook-custom-domain-verification

Once the domain got verified you will see a green indicator and active status in the domain dashboard of your account. [As shown in the image below]

outlook-custom-domain-dashboard

Step 4: Create an email id with custom domain

Once your account is verified and active you may navigate to dashboard and click on the domain under which you want to create email/account. Their will be a form asking to fill some info. Just fill those and create your first email id with custom domain. the important thing is “Account name” in the form. it will be the email id and may have alphanumeric, periods, hyphens and underscore.

outlook-custom-domain-create-email

After creating the account you may ask user to login and accept terms and conditions. Also their will be an account reset question for your users, which will be asked at first login.

Benefits of Microsoft Outlook custom domain over Google Apps!

  1. Microsoft offers these apps for free.
  2. Up to 500 users 50 may be added just after signing up. (Now, you can’t get more than 50 accounts per domain)
  3. You may also offer your site visitors to sign up email ids with under your domain.
  4. Outlook.com offers unlimited storage. So, you will never required to delete mail.
  5. You may also offer maps, skydrive and other services from your domain/sub-domain

If you have any query or problem let me know by commenting below. Don’t forget to share this post on Google+, Twitter or Facebook, if you liked it.

Quick Tip: If you are now able to receive emails to your newly set up email accounts then make sure that there is no other MX records pointing to @ or the naked domain.

I have recently got a chance to log into someone else’s account and fix the issue. I successfully fixed the issue. It was the wrongly configured.

Please ask all types of Domain Setup, Web Hosting Setup and WordPress related questions to our forums. 

Comments

Comments

  1. Nice Article.
    Once all config is done, How to configure & check emails on Outlook ?

    I dont want to go to live.com everytime & login there on webpage.
    Can we check within outlook software ?

      • Hi Anand,

        Can i connect the regular clients to the new accounts created in Outlook custom domain. For example: Microsoft Outlook (hotmail connector for outlook 2013/2010/2007), ipad or Blackberry Z10 vía Activesync?

    • 1rst Google, now Outlook stops taking new registrations for free custom domains service, and their cost are ….. well… due to this, i was looking everywhere to find an alternative, i find this: xeliux.com they give 2gb and 30gb of custom email with your domain. I got the service and went so well till now, hope it helps someone.

  3. Hotmail Outgoing Mail (SMTP) Server: smtp.live.com
    Use Authentication: Yes
    Port: 25
    Use SSL: Yes

    Hotmail Incoming Mail (POP3) Server: pop3.live.com
    Use SSL: Yes
    Port: 995

      • Hi ,
        For me these settings are not working. I am not able to configure the emails in outlook 2007. Please help.

        Thanks in advance.

  4. The writer of this post is absolutely spot on, This is awesome post which will help us regarding this issue. Thank you very much.

  5. Hello Anand, it’s nice to be in contact with you. I have a doubt and i think you can help me with a Microsoft Custom Domain. I’ve checked all requirements and made a full and clean setup. The service is active and the domain @portalgsti.com is recognized. But, our emails can just send messages, do not receive, in anyway from anyone. Do you know what’s going on? I’m very thankfull for your support.

      • Hi Anand,

        I am facing the same problem my emails can just send messages, do not receive.

        please help me with this.

        • Hello,
          I am facing the same problem, i am using godaddy hosting, i have also updated the priority of the microsoft tx account higher than that of Godaddy’s still i cant recieve messages?
          Can you please help

  6. Hi, is it possible to setup multiple administrator to manage the email domain? It means that we need to prove ownership of the administrators so add multiple TXT records? Is it possible?

    • Yes, This is possible. I have tested on a domain. 😉

      But there is no official statement about multiple administrator in free “Microsoft outlook for custom domain”. They officially provide this for Office365 suite.

  7. hi anand thank you foe the everything by using your blog’s information i have setup the windows live account and hosted few website in that for email hosting but from last 3 days i am unable to access my windows live admin account as it is saying That “Microsoft account doesn’t exist. Enter a different email address” i have also tried to reset the password but no use i have also tried to make the new one by using the same login details but its saying the account already exists and if you want we can reset the password but their is no option to raise the request to reset the password i also tried he single use code also but no use i have not received any code from Microsoft yet so i have raised the request by using support system i got on mail saying that we received your complaint and we will resolve the isue in 24 hours but no use now it more than 30 hours i dont know what to do and how i can recover my admin account login details

    so if you can help me out in this

    thank you

    • You should ask this question in Microsoft forum or official support. They may help you in recovering your account.

      Sorry for late reply.

  9. Hi Anand,

    Thanks for this post, it has been very useful.

    I have a query. Can I only have a few users using outlook.com? I only need my managers to access email off site, but don’t want everyone to be able to do it.

    Can I leave 10 users on POP with existing details and “migrate” 3 Managers to using outlook.com.

    Will this be via multiple mx records?

  10. Hi Anand,

    Nice article – what I am trying to do, is to migrate my existing live ID with Skydrive, but without mail service (in fact, my live ID is a local e-mail provider) and I want to:
    1) Migrate my current live ID under my newly created custom domain – e.g. from [email protected] to [email protected]
    2) be the administrator of custom domains with the same live ID as I would normally use (e.g. [email protected])
    3) have active e-mail service over at Outlook com with still the same live ID (e.g. [email protected])

    This seems to be something really unachievable – do you know, how to approach this?

    Thanks!

    Gianluca

  11. i guess there is only 50 users you can use, not 500 anymore, check check today, anyway is good, i have tried with outlook “offline” and it works fine

  12. Hi!
    Switched over Google Apps to Outlook.com/
    Any temp solution for group mailing lists? maybe create an account and forward to emails for time being? like a rule?

    Tks!
    -Marv

    • Outlook do not allow bulk email from free accounts. You should take a look on Mailchimp or other services.

      Somewhere i read, they allow only 300 emails/day.

  13. Anand,

    Very helpful article, but for some reason, there are some email servers out there that expect an MX record to point to an A or AAAA record, and if they don’t see that…mail is bounced. I migrated from Google Apps yesterday and so far there about four domains to which I can’t send…and that can’t send to me. Here is the bounce message:

    : Host or domain name not found. Name service error for
    name=xxxxxxxx.net type=AAAA: Host not found

    Unfortunately, there is absolutely no guidance on how to configure an AAAA record at domains.live.com, and I spent about six hours today searching the internet, hoping to find someone who’s done it, and then I could just adapt his configuration with my domains.live.com unique identifier.

    Additionally, if I plug xxxxxxxx.net into the DNS Report box at http://www.dnsstuff.com it brings up two FAILS regarding MX and SOA.

  14. Dear Anand,
    Thanks for this post. Its very helpful.

    I am having problem with verifying ownership of my domain.

    I guess the problem is with my MX records. Microsoft needs me to set TTL value to 3600 but my domain registrar says ‘Minimum TTL required is 14400’.

    Can this be the reason?

    Thanks:)

  16. I purchase domain from godaddy. now I create all my custom emails on hotmail.
    So, Can u tell me which port I use for incoming & outgoing emails?

  17. i got a free domain from cz.cc but i have not being able to setup a branded email with outlook, I am having problem with verifying ownership of my domain. please help me on how to do that

  18. Anand,
    Very useful Post.
    Is there any console for managing settings related to email auto bcc and more.
    expecting gmail kind of console.

    venkadesh

  19. Hello… Thank you so much for your article. I have successfully set up email accounts but I am not receiving emails however i can send email… 🙁 what should I do?

  20. Thanks for this great article!

    One problem I’m having is adding e-mails using a custom domain on Outlook.com to Outlook 2013 via POP3 / SMTP.

    POP3 works fine, but I cannot get SMTP to work under any circumstances I’ve tried.

    Everything I’ve found seems to say to use Port 587 for smtp.live.com with TLS. But when I do this, it simply doesn’t work. The test fails and I can’t send out any mail (every time a Send/Receive is performed, I get an error message)

    Any thoughts on why this might be?

    Thanks in advance!

    • Welcome Lou, Thanks for landing here.

      Have you tried Port 25 instead of 587? Also, for Outlook 2013 POP3/SMTP is not essential as far as I know. (I have used default outlook account so far on Outlook 2013. Not checked for custom domain accounts)

      Use Microsoft Office Outlook Hotmail Connector, Which is already built with Outlook 2013 and can be installed on v2010 or older. download here

  21. Anand,

    Very useful post. Quick question – why do you recommend that we assign an administrator email address from outside the domain (step 2 of your list)?

    Vivek.

    • It is not essential to choose the administrator account outside your domain. But, If you already have a Microsoft Account (or signup with hotmail/live/outlook email) then choosing that account will provide extra security layer. Since intruders (or hacker) will never know your Custom Domain Account Manager email.

  22. Is it possible to use a free hosting service to setup mx and verify your domain??? i dont need the hosting for anything else but email.

    Is so, which service would you recommend???

  23. Hi Anand,

    Thanks for this post, was very useful. I have been using this for a while now but there is one thing that I find very frustrating. I access my mail on multiple devices but none of them ever mark the messages read on the server. I therefore constantly have to go though all unread mail on 4 devices to mark all my mail read.

    Do you know if there is a way to get round this?

    Thanks

  24. Hi Anand,

    Thank you for the information post.

    I’ve recently added a custom domain on Outlook.com.

    However, I am only able to send outgoing emails, but unable to receive incoming emails.

    Could I have your advice on how to solve this?

    Thank you!

  25. How do i get more than 50 emails? I tried posting to forums but it does not post my question – it keeps saying “Sorry the request couldn’t be completed. Please try again later.”

  26. 1. Owns two domain (www.Mayahotelsindia.com older one) & (www.mayahotels.in the newer one).
    USing Gapps mail server for email accounts created on http://www.mayahotels.in
    2. Having 15email accounts on older domain http://www.mayahotelsindia.com.
    3.Our concern is about IMAP limitations of outlook.com
    4. If we swtich over old email accounts of mayahotelsindia.com to outlook.com free email server & use self auto forwarding option in outlook.com email server for each individual older email account (e.g. [email protected] to [email protected])
    5.Would there be any issue w.r.t. IMAP sync option in gapps mail server of client machine with other device.
    Sincerely Yours,
    Kranti Mohan T: 00911724688774, M: 9915707030

  27. Hi Anand,

    Thanks for this valuable information.

    We are using this free email hosting facility of Microsoft domain. But is there any option to reset the password of an account by an administrator.

    My current situation

    I had created an account for the user and user reset the password and change the security question. Now he forget the password and the answer for that security question.
    Is there any way to reset the password of that user?

    Thanks in advance for your reply.

    Many Thanks,
    Joseph Thomas

  28. hey,
    great work. can you tell me how to increase mail account from 50 to 100 or more. ?
    if you can send or post any link/email to which we can contact.
    Regards
    ali

  29. had a query regarding the custom email, let say i go with outlook to create my custom email e.g. [email protected]. Now if tomorrow i decide to switch over to google apps to handle my custom email i created on outlook e.g. [email protected]. How will i be able to achieve this?will the same mail be sent to outlook and gmail?

  30. I am using this Mail service already for my domains and my clients.. but I’m having trouble sending mails from PHPMailer… Sending Emails from my CMS Website. It blocks an email ID sending emails from outside.. says “Data Not Accepted” I need to login to that Email ID again to start mails. Are you aware about this?? Is there any settings needs to be done?? OR Outlook.com just don’t allow this??

  31. Hi, currently I have a web and email hosting account with a provider. I want to use Microsoft Outlook free hosting service. Can I cancel my current subscription after using Microsoft’s free service? My current account has 6 active email accounts, would I need to create a new id for them after migration (step 4)? Would the emails from the previous mailbox automatically appear on the new mailbox? Thank you for your well-written article and advice.

  32. I have configuring my domain with live.com …I checked email thru microsoft …my problem is that suddenly all previously recd email are recd again….can u help me to rectify this problem….
    Thaks in advance

  33. Hi there,

    Great info. Im actually stuck and need your help.
    I have registered a domain and wish its two email address emails to land in ONE outlook inbox…

    example:
    [email protected]
    [email protected]

    both belong to me.. so i want them to land in one outlook account.

    I have created an account, made changed in Cpanel of the website added these mail addresses on domains.live.com and verified the MX, configured the mail forwarding in the Cpanel.. still the emails tend to bounce.. I dont know where im going wrong..

    kindly help

    Regards,
    Zohaib

  34. Great article – I have a personalized email account now all set up and I am not even a techie. Thanks Anand!

  35. Hi Anand!

    Am getting Pending DNS Configuration. I have created MX record on godaddy.com. When this will be confirmed or do I need to do anything in godaddy.com DNS settings.

    Thanks

  37. Hello Anand – this is great info. Great help. I am in the process right now and I have a dumb question. I just want to confirm this for custom emails example [email protected]?

    Just confused as I used an existing microsoft account.

    Thanks

  38. Hi, Couple of questions >1. Do you know if I change my A Record as www from @ will impact the mail delivery. Does A record make any role in mail delivery ?
    2. In GApps or Outlook when you sign up the Domain you enter are differently allowed like in Gapps you can enter both http://www.domain.com or domain.com as primary URL where as in Outlook it shows www as none editable part.
    if you happen to have your alias mail setup in Gapps are you going to accept mail from [email protected] and [email protected] to abc a/c ?
    Thanks.

  39. Hello!

    I did as explained here, and I had a few mailboxes hosted in my domain, they did not appear in the new MSLive administrator interface. I tried creating one with the very same name, but the email messages stored in the old hosting service were not transferred. Does it mean that my old emails are lost or that I need to move them manually? Thanks!

  40. Dear Anand

    Great article…….

    If I need more than 50 users, What is the procedure ? Where Should I contact ? What is tariff ?

  41. Anand,

    I have an question. After creating members accounts. Could we give them permission fo example they can not use their password or delete their account.

    Your earlier reply would be appreciable.

    Thanks
    Harry

  42. Hi. I have 2 domains and i hosted email adresses with outlook. I have problem with accessing too often via pop3. Mail blocked for 15minutes and gives me an error. what can i do

  43. hey,
    as you mention if you need more then 50 accounts contact microsoft.. an you tell me how and where we can contact them as there is no clue where we have to contact them and tell them to increase the mailboxes numbers..
    if you can tell me the URL or email address i will be very thankful to you,
    thanks
    Movi

  44. Dear Sir,

    Thanks a lot, your blog really helped me, when I needed most.

    My email hosting was about to expire in days, fortunately I found ur post & made settings accordingly on DNS Management settings of my domain.

    I completed the settings as guided by you.

    I am able to login to outlook.com with my user id & password.

    Iam able to send emails to others but, mails from others are not coming to this email.

    I tested myself with other mails.

    I guess, I missed some settings.

    Pls guide me, what shld I do to get the emails to this inbox.

    Rgds,
    Krishna Kumar M

  45. Hi Anandh,

    I have successfully integrate our domain balajipress.com with live.com custom mail server.

    But I need one more configuration to set up. For example, if I click this link mail.sigmacorporatesolutions.sg automatically it will go to outlook.com. Like that if I click this mail.balajipress.com some error is coming.

    Can you let me know with the exact DNS records and values which I want to set for my domain, so that I can do set them for my domain and then it will start resolving accordingly.

    Regards,
    S. Sujin.

  46. Hi Anandh,

    Per day how many mails can send through domain.live.com. Is it possible to send 5000 mails per day by single mail id?

    Regards,
    S. Sujin.

  47. I am on the way to set up according to the aforementioned guide. I just want to know how much time it takes to propagate everything by GoDaddy and how do I sign in to my email account? Go to outlook.com and enter custom email ID and password like Google Mail or is there any other procedure? Please sir give me reply.

  48. Hi Anand,
    Is there a way to pragmatically add domains and add users ?
    I might need to add domains on a regular basis. Also I might need to add users to these domains on regular basis. I certainly don’t want to manually do it by clicking around and logging to the site everytime.
    Is there a SDK/API you know of which I can code for myself to do these things just by calling some REST/SOAP APIs.
    Thanks for the excellent article.

  49. Hey Anand,

    Nicely written.
    I’m having a problem with DOMAIN SETTINGS thing. I have successfully updated my zone file with given MX, TXT and SRV settings, still I’m stuck there, and refreshing doesn’t help me go past. It says to prove ownership by updating DNS records, which I have done.
    Please, help me with this problem

    Thanks

  51. I have more than 75 users in my domain how do is shift? I cant find any way to connect to hotmail team, please advice how to add more users

  52. Hi, I’m using this service on my domain. Would like to check if you manage to use your website to send email out directly? My website is using CMS and tried all the available setting SMTP / PHPmail / SendMail.

    None seems to be able to send out any email from this outlook services.

    Regards,
    Zack

  53. Hello,

    Thanks for this wonderful explanation, however, in following it, I seem to not be able to prove ownership of my new domain 7watersforlife.com, which i purchased through GoDaddy last night.

    In checking my MX record with whatsmydns.net, it’s showing that it reconizes it or it has been propagated. Why doesn’t that seem to be enough for Windows Live when I push the refresh button? Getting the same prove ownership of this domain message.

    Any assistance is much appreciated.

  54. i have already updated the MX Record but it showing “It may take a few minutes to complete the changes to your service. Please check back later.

    You can Cancel service or Edit mail settings” since 48 hours. how to resolve it please let me know

    • Hi Saroj,

      I am Srikanth
      I set outlook.com email server for my domain, i am able to receive mails but not able to send mails, can you plz share me the MX Records for outlook.com email server

  55. Everything is OK!! But I can not sent more than 300 mail per day from a account. I have to send more than 3000 mail per day. Can anybody help me?

    Syedul

    • If you pay Google Rs. 150/user/month then it allows you to send 3000 emails/day with attachment size of 50MB but don’t know about this in outlook free email hosting service.

  56. Hi this is helpful. I am having trouble trying to read my email with the Outlook Client in office 2013. When i add the account it searches for the email account and returns the following message — An encrypted connection to your email is not available.

    What now?

  57. Great Article Anand !….. I have setup everything as instructed here. It says that the domain is active and I have also created multiple email accounts. However on every email address I have created I have huge delay in receiving emails. I am also able to send and receive emails however If I send emails to someone or if someone sends me an email almost in more than 90% cases it takes around 1 hour – 2 hours for the mails to reach inbox. Can you please suggest how to rectify this. Thanks in advance

  58. If I send about 100 emails , outlook block my account and ask to change pasword. How can we increase the limit of sending maximum emails without blockage????
    PLease tell me soon

  59. I’ve configured my outlook.
    Created two email accounts as well.
    They are working fine too, I am able to send and receive emails as well.
    But,
    Still it says that “Pending DNS Configuration”. What does that mean? should I get worried about it coz emails are working fine.

  60. I have problem with my inbox messages. If someone send me a email he can`t to do this. He get this message:

    Technical details of permanent failure:
    Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the server for the recipient domain us-jim.com by mail.us-jim.com. [184.95.38.201].

    The error that the other server returned was:
    550 5.1.1 : Recipient address rejected: User unknown in local recipient table

    —– Original message —–

    DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed;
    d=gmail.com; s=20120113;
    h=mime-version:date:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type;
    bh=NabbNQ0dHLy11kK9mjEtL2Qb7G3iX+k7QUTxyDkOFDk=;
    b=hfBjgKzAseIqckuwXdEBxuQhthmecq7pZnwE88vQZ14U5AqlDGz2RQEKueEi7OremY
    HTbLBnnn/gdzDcNrogLyMZU2/X6Rc04GYJ6a6cAeb9VaE9aZ981n+CcFkwKN21Vdl2vR
    jGSMTdfSNKZ/Vb4u8OpGVEHVB3939s78Ac8WiIuOVh6nsl1PRfpHu1KFqlUIY31bhoQ/
    C+t9/9FEzRH8PcpXw2Lo5U+iTZ26ZubmCHzYOizvKEOU3EZu/ef19GjEnOkLbMcvpytc
    ocYGv9oWQYJagQl3bqyFb6mYzxqM9QLMW56Z+WyXSW1UaOuLMYcQVN64zcPcazI6e1FK
    S0lg==
    MIME-Version: 1.0
    X-Received: by 10.66.221.199 with SMTP id qg7mr22896996pac.13.1387758707834;
    Sun, 22 Dec 2013 16:31:47 -0800 (PST)
    Received: by 10.68.11.9 with HTTP; Sun, 22 Dec 2013 16:31:47 -0800 (PST)
    Date: Mon, 23 Dec 2013 01:31:47 +0100
    Message-ID:
    Subject: sad
    From: Josip Landeka
    To: [email protected]
    Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=047d7b5da649d0829004ee28c000

    das

    Thanks for the help!

  61. Hi Anand Kumar,

    Thanks for your article. I have only one query is this service free for lifetime?

    • Microsoft has never hinted to charge anything for the service, So the service is free for now (and will be for a long time I guess). And of course they will never say that the service will be “free for lifetime” due to some reasons.

  62. Dear Anand,
    I proceed your mentioned step to setup Microsoft Outlook custom domain email hosting, but, I could not see review setting and accept agreement to accept (I saw Account summary page) and therefore, could not to start step 3. What I have to do?

      • Thank u, I refer your mentioned link and saw step 3. I have to contact with my domain administrator for domain registrar? Can I do myself?

        Kindly regards,

        • Most of the domain registrars provide a dashboard to configure NS, CNAME, MX and TXT records. We have to simply navigate to dashboard and add the records. So, the answer is “Yes” for both of your questions.

          If you have purchased your domain from a good registrar then I am sure you can do this yourself. the steps varies from site to site but these are pretty simple steps.

  63. I have config my outlook email to “[email protected]”…now how do I add “[email protected]”??
    please help.

  64. domain ownership had been pending for days even though I set up everything right. None of the Microsoft guys was able to answer me why my proof of ownership didn’t go through even though all email addresses are working.
    Today, I decided to delete the other MX record in my DNS, set to be secondary or backup MX record. And within minutes my domain ownership was recognized by live.com.
    Quite silly, huh? Why don’t they mention it on the instruction? Why don’t their support stuff have this information? Maybe they are not expecting some smart asses like us that would use a backup MX. In anycase, why would Live.com want their MX record to be the only one? And why does that have to do with proof of domain ownership? Silly!
    My impression is that Google tries to make things simple; Microsoft tries to make things complicated!

  65. Anand,

    Thanks for this post it made sense when I read it. Following it became challenging. I have my domain with go daddy and I was able to update my MX field, but a week later it still says DNS pending … I am willing to go for paid support to get this resolved … is there such a thing? where someone could go across the alise and help me with my go daddy account etc …

    I felt like I was almost there ….

  67. This has been super helpful and saved me money, as i only needed a handful of email addresses.

    Thanks

    🙂

  68. This domain name can’t be used because it contains a protected word or inappropriate language. Please contact support if you feel this is not the case.

    I got this error and microsoft support has been completely useless. Any ideas?

  69. HI Anand,
    I have a domain registered with bigrock, and wanted a custom email service from outlook, i have made the necessary settings in my DNS configuration, but just wanted to know that on the microsoft configuration page it was saying TTL should be 3600, but my domain registrar does not allows less than 7200, will that cause my domain not recognized by microsoft. i have created the MX entry by 10.25 and setting the TTL to 7200 (2 hours), means the propogation should have took effect till 12.25 but i am unable to get my domain verified even after waiting for 3 hours.

    Can you please help me with the same,
    Thanks and Regards,
    Abbas Electricwala.

    • Don’t worry about the TTL. Also it may take more than 24 hrs. You may check the MX propagation at whatsmydns.net. Here it is important that there should not be any other record with high priority.

  70. Hi,

    How to request for more users? I dont see any link for the same anywhere.

    Regards

    Jabbar

  71. Does outlook based email need hosting compulsorily. can I just register domain name and use outlook to configure email as I don’t have any website, I want to use the domain name for emails only please advice?

    • There is no need of any web hosting service. Just purchase a domain and configure outlook for email hosting. You will not have to pay anything else. But make sure your domain registrar offer DNS (99% domain registrar offers DNS for free).

  72. Excellent article. I found the admin panel seem to have minimum functionality. Is there a way to manage e-mails I created, for example change/reset password, keep track of e-mail conversations, .forwarding etc.

  73. Hi,
    I have already registered a domain and have few accounts in that domain now as I configured that under my personal id , I want to change the same what I need to do? do I have to delete all the ids and move the domain or I can change the admin for that domain all the users do have a lot of mails. pls. guide me the procedure

  74. I have done all procedure, and every thing is working fine but when i send email to may custom email address, it shows error in gmail ie: Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

    [email protected]

    Technical details of permanent failure:
    Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the server for the recipient domain thesmartfone.com by thesmartfone.com.

    I haven’t Provided domain ownership, how to solve this error?

  75. Please could someone help me with this.. I have set up all the records exactly as it says on outlook.com and after 4 days, it’s still not verified that I own the website? I cannot see anything that I have done wrong, and it’s driving me crazy as neither outlook.com or GoDaddy have any kind of live help to work through it. Please help!

  76. We have our email, domain & hosting in Godaddy. We want to migrate it to outlook.com. How long will it take to switch to outlook.com? And while switching, will we still get our mails or they will bounce off?

  77. hi sir,
    i am facing problem! i couldnt verify my ownership
    i have correctly configured MX records!
    i couldnt recieve mails and if i send mail from google it fails!
    altough i set pririty higher than others

    Technical details of permanent failure:
    Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the server for the recipient domain i-visionblog.com by smtp.secureserver.net

  78. As far as I can see this is a program for EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS only. In the Microsoft [email protected] Terms of Use (Consumer) it says “This …Agreement… is… between your educational institution… and Microsoft… Institution must be recognized by Microsoft, in its sole discretion, as a legitimate non-profit enterprise focused primarily on providing educational services to students or alumni services to graduates.” You should probably mention this in your article. Microsoft would be well within its rights to pull your service if you’re not a school or uni.

    • Microsoft [email protected] is different from Microsoft Live for domains (read this). [email protected] is actually a full featured office 365 designed for academics. 😉

  79. Is there any way to have 2-3 different addresses within the same domain for one account? For example, my normal account, and login in the same time, is [email protected] but I would like to have [email protected] to get in the same inbox. It is very easy to cinfigure on Google Apps, but can’t find a way to make it working under Live Custom Domains…

  80. For those who can only send messages but can not receive, try changing your pop3 port to 465 instead of 995. Hope this may work.

  81. Hi, Today on 22 Jan 2014 i just got your post on google it was all about my problem and i just following steps by step procedure, anand sir i need to setup my domain for the same, as per information shared by you i have setup my domain with microsoft and i need to know that how can i use these email addresses on my mobile for example : [email protected]. i want to configure this on my adroid phone and want to assist my customer on the go. please help me and i have updated MX records andp priority was 5, is it fine?

  82. Dear Sir
    I’m not able to verify pls help.

    Below is the massage:

    Mail setup (required)
    To set up mail and prove ownership of this domain, you must create an MX record through your domain registrar. Use the following settings:

    DNS record type: MX
    Host: cookmytrip.in
    MX server: 6f89a77d0b53494c953926008d3883.pamx1.hotmail.com
    TTL: 3600 or 1 hour
    Priority: 10 (or High priority)

    More information
    Prove domain ownership (optional)
    If you would like to prove the ownership of domain and create users without setting up mail, you can use one of the following methods for up to 30 days. After 30 days, you will need to set up an MX record for mail routing as shown above.
    If your domain registrar allows you to create TXT records, use these settings:

    DNS record type: TXT
    Host: cookmytrip.in
    Value: v=msv1 t=6f89a77d0b53494c953926008d3883

    More information
    If your domain registrar allows you to create MX records, use these settings:

    DNS record type: MX
    Host: cookmytrip.in
    Value: 6f89a77d0b53494c953926008d3883.msv1.invalid
    Priority: Higher value than existing records, or Low priority.

    More information
    Server trust (recommended)
    Create a TXT record to allow other mail servers to trust email originating from your domain. Also known as sender ID configuration, this setting will help prevent your mail from being marked as junk mail. Use the following settings:

    DNS record type: TXT
    Host: cookmytrip.in
    Value: v=spf1 include:hotmail.com ~all
    TTL: 3600 or 1 hour (if requested)

    More information
    Messenger configuration (recommended)
    To federate Messenger with other compatible networks, you need to create the following SRV record in DNS.

    DNS record type: SRV
    Service: _sipfederationtls._tcp.cookmytrip.in
    Protocol: _tcp
    Domain Name: cookmytrip.in
    Priority: 10 (or High priority)
    Weight: 2
    Port: 5061
    Target: federation.messenger.msn.com

    More information

  83. After following all the configuration steps mentioned on live.domains.com, I’m not able to send any emails using outlook.com. Every other email sent to different Ids bounce back immediately.

    How do I approach this issue.

  84. Hi Anand, what a great article, this is just what I have been looking for. I have got everything setup and added a couple of email addresses to my custom domain. The only part I cannot seem to get working is using Outlook 2013 client (rather than outlook.com) to send and receive email.

    Do you know if it is possible to use Outlook 2013 Client and if so what the settings are that are required?

    Scott

  85. I’m admin in domain.live.com, how setup to deny user change password?
    please reply soon, thank

  86. Dear anand
    Thanks for the article.
    we have out company email hosted on godaddy at the moment. We have a couple of issues with the same.
    1 no support for imap. upgrade needs to be purchased.
    2 smtp relays limited to 250 only per day.

    WE are seriouly considering to shift the hosting from godaddy. Please suggest if outlook.com would be a better choice.

  87. Hi

    Whenever i sent out mail. it goes [email protected] on behalf of [email protected]
    How to resolve this problem

  88. Hi Anand,

    I configured outlook for my custom domain and was using mails for last 5 months without issues until 2 days back. Suddenly I’m unable to receive mails while I’m able to send mails from the same… the only change that took place was that i have added an A record on my domain registrar to host my website and since then its giving this problem..
    There are no other MX records except for one thats pointing to microsoft outlook…
    Kindly advice how to get over this…

    RK

  89. We wish to register the domain name “www.trustwaygt.com” with domains.live.com but we are receiving the following message:

    “This domain name can’t be used because it contains a protected word or inappropriate language. Please contact support if you feel this is not the case. ”

    We are looking forward for your help to activate the registration of this domain name within Windows Live Admin Center.

  90. Hi Anand,
    thanks for posting the inital article. This was very detailed and helped me to get my first domain migrated in realy short time.

    I have just finished adding my domain via https://domains.live.com and I have changed the MX record. The domain is now verified.

    I am however struggling with three things.
    1) Can I somehow add a user like [email protected] to an existing outlook.com account (trying to add this as an alias is giving me the error that I am not allowed to add an alias from this domain). Note: The account I use as admin for my domain at domains.live.com is the outlook.com account I would like to add the alias to (not sure if this is making it easier or worse). Also my domain is setup as an open domain as I thought this might get me around some restictions.
    2) What is going to happen if I add a second domain. Can I use aliases from multiple domans within one of my accounts or do I need to create one new account for each domain?

    Thanks for all the effort you have put into this so far and probably for helping me on this question 😉

    Cheers

    Chris

  91. Hi Anand ,

    I followed your steps configuring my email at outlook , but its still pending , i need your help … after editing my MX records at MY email , Should i delete the default MX records in my domain ….because adding the outlook MX records didn’t prove ownership till now , been 2 days ..

    Regards ,

  92. Your article waa awesome, but how can I ceeate more email Id after I create one in step 4. It seems that after I create my first email, I cany go to the admi mm istration page from where I firt create the first email. Thanks in advance

  95. Hello Anand,

    After do necessary setting for welcometiles.com I can’t receive mail. Able to send mail.
    PFB bounce mail :

    Sub :Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender

    This is the mail system at host imx1.my-hosting-panel.com.

    I’m sorry to have to inform you that your message could not
    be delivered to one or more recipients. It’s attached below.

    For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster.

    If you do so, please include this problem report. You can
    delete your own text from the attached returned message.

    The mail system

    : host 204.93.172.6[204.93.172.6] said: 550
    No such user here (in reply to RCPT TO command)

    Final-Recipient: rfc822; [email protected]
    Original-Recipient: rfc822;[email protected]
    Action: failed
    Status: 5.0.0
    Remote-MTA: dns; 204.93.172.6
    Diagnostic-Code: smtp; 550 No such user here

  96. Hello,

    I want to create hot mail apps for my domain vacinternational.com. But when i want to add the domain for mail id creation it shows error i.e “This domain name can’t be used because it contains a protected word or inappropriate language. Please contact support if you feel this is not the case.” Plz help me out

  97. Thank you for your post. I successfully made my custom domain email with the outlook service.
    Now I am trying to add an account with the created email in Microsoft Outlook program (not webpage).

    I entered like below in the form:

    Your Name: My Name
    E-mail Address: [email protected]

    Incoming mail server: pop3.live.com
    Outgoing mail server: smtp.live.com

    User Name: [email protected]
    Password: **********

    Require logon using SPA: Yes
    —————–

    But both of incoming and outgoing servers are not passed by Account Setting Test..

    I tried 25 and 587 port for smpt and 110 and 995 port for pop3

    What am I missing?

  98. Need your help on the issue explained below:

    I’ve the domain moneymantraloans.com. I am trying to setup email hosting with outlook.com but getting an error as below:

    “This domain name can’t be used because it contains a protected word or inappropriate language. Please contact support if you feel this is not the case.”

    Please guide me what to do to resolve this issue. If you’ve already explained this issue in your previous articles; please provide me with the relevant link of that page. Thanks in advance.

  99. It’s been more than 48 hours and my domain is still not verified. Where do I go for help?

  100. Hello Anand,

    I created a custom domain account [email protected] and used the address for couple of days.

    I happen to delete that address and created [email protected].

    Now I want to go back to [email protected] the email id I created originally.

    They system is creating the id, but when I tried to login using the outlook.com, it says, this account has already been deleted by the company and asking me to use an existing alias.

    How do I get access to the my email?

    Thanks,
    Ram

  101. Great article. I have a question that can i have other domains (as long as the number of accounts is under 50) and what is maximum domains number.

    Thank you!

  102. Anand, is there a new work around? I went to set my domain up and it was a NO-GO. It seems Outlook now wants us to use office365. Do you know of another way to get a free business accout??

  103. Is there a way to remove a domain from live domains and add another? after they closed the service? or change the settings so I can use another domain instead? or a workaround?

      • Hi Anand,

        I am Srikanth recently i registered my domain in outlook.com, using 1 admin account i have registered two domains now i want to add more domain, it looks like outlook is not accepting new registration, any other way to get it.

        Please let me know

        Thanks in advance,

  104. I have just migrated several domains to Zoho, but I came up to a limit in their free edition of only five accounts, not 20 as you suggest.

  105. Thank you for pointing that out Anand. I had actually read the Zoho referral page already, but because it said “Invite other businesses…” I took that to mean the invited users must be paid accounts. Reading it again, it is now clear that they may also be free accounts, and that both parties to the invitation get the 5 extra mailboxes.

  107. Dear sir, i reached the limit of 50 account in domain.live.com . to add more account its show error like “You have reached the maximum number of accounts (50) allowed in this domain. To allow more users please contact” Please help to increase the limit.Thanks

    • Sorry, but you could no longer get more free accounts. As per Microsoft new policy the free email hosting is no longer available for new domains. Soon they will also remove ability add more accounts.

  109. I see that the free service is coming to an end, how can we protect our accounts (current domains with outlook) and keep them for future?

  110. Hello,

    I configured some accounts on outlook.com with my custom domain according to the instructions you present on this website. I’m already able to send e-mails from this account, but can’t receive any e-mails. I think maybe something went wrong on the process of configuring the account, but I don’t know what to fix or how to fix it. The e-mail I’m trying to send e-mails from is [email protected]

    If you could give me some advice I would really appreciate it!

    Best regards,

    Juan Rodriguez

    • Yes, You will have to buy Office 360 plans. If you are going to buy a plan then make sure that the plan have email hosting for custom domain. Otherwise it will be just Word, Excel and other apps.

  113. If your domain is registered on Outlook.com for free email service and If you are using pirated version of Microsoft Office, then soon you will end up paying 6000-13000Rs per installation copy.
    I recently got email from Bertelsmann, Noida on Behalf of Microsoft and they asked me to provide them with invoice copies of Microsoft Office else they will Send a legal notice for using pirated version. After a week long conversation I had to buy 4 copies of Microsoft office 2013 Business version each costing 220 $.

    So beware of free stuff, you will slowly get entangled into a big mess.

    Having said that I am not supporting piracy in any possible way.It is just that the cost of original software is very high for a small scale businesses in India.

  114. Hi Anand,

    This post is quite informative. However, I would like to know that since now Microsoft has stopped new domains registrations, what will happen to the already registered users. I would like to know that pre-registered users will be able to add or remove accounts in their domain or not.

    Thank you in advance.

    • Hello Neha,

      Existing MS Custom Domain users will be able to continue enjoying the service for an UNDEFINED time. It means the existing setup will work for an undisclosed time (I guess unless they kick us out or we leave. But it will not happen in near future).

      However, We (The Admins) can’t add more domains (or maybe new users).

      • I have setup custom domain email with Outlook.com, but now am unable to add anymore addresses. My domain name is registered with Goddady and they allow email forwarding. I’m hosted on a third party and I have an MX record setup for Outlook.com. Looks like I need to add MX record for Godaddy in order for email forwarding to work. Do you know if it is possible for me to create more email addresses on godaddy and forward those to the custom domain addresses i have setup on outlook.com? Can i have an MX record for Outlook and another record for Godaddy? So far i haven’t been able to get forwarding and my custom domain emails on outlook.com to work together. Is this even possible?

        • Outlook.com no longer allow to change in Custom domain setup for free accounts. In order to get more email address with the service you will need to upgrade your account to Office360. Remember, this will be irreversible process. Once you upgrade your account you will not be able to downgrade to free account.

          Godaddy mail forwarding will forward all your mails to a single email id. And yes in this case you will need to change MX records and point it to GoDaddy MX server. In this case you will not receive any mail to your Custom domain email hosting at Outlook.com. You may need some custom filter and tricks to forward these mails to separate email ids. But there will be string attached.

          If you need up to 10 (or twentyfive if you can invite 3 more users) accounts then consider Zoho Mail. If you are happy with a good russian provider Yandex will be your choice. It will allow to add upto 1000 free email accounts.

          rest services are not so reliable in terms of security breach. But you may also give your 3rd party webhosting a shot, i believe it will offer plenty of free account. Though outgoing mail delivery will not be good (if it’s some kind of shared hosting).

  115. Hi Anand,

    I configured some accounts on domains.live.com with my custom domain according to the instructions you present on this website.

    I hosted my website in “godaddy” but now i want to change “Bigrock” hosting services.
    If i change the hosting services my existing emails will be safe or not.

    Regards,

    Ravi Chandra

    • Your existing emails will be absolutely safe. FYI you may get some delay in email services or may be some emails can be bounced back if you change domain registrar.

      There is no relation between web hosting and email hosting, unless you made any changes in DNS server or domain registrar. If godaddy is also your domain registrar and you are switching your web host including domain, then you my get some down time in email hosting.

      PS: Your existing emails WILL BE SAFE in all these cases.

  116. Great article, I have an Office 365 – Home Addition, does that qualify for this setup, thanks!

  117. Hello Anand, thanks for this… I have a question, have you set the smtp option with zoho? Im trying to make ti work with joomla and wordpress with not luck. 🙁

  120. hi
    I would like to create new email ids under the custom domains hosted in free microsoft live accounts, i don’t find a way to create it.

    please help me

  121. Hi, I have custom outlook domain. I need to add more users but I can’t anymore. Hypothetically I though it this:

    Move my custom domain to Zoho. Change my MX to Zoho servers. Create new users.

    Change my MX back to outlook. Would the new users transfer? Would it be possible to do this at all?

      • Hey Anand Kumar,

        I have a domain hosted with Godaddy & email server with outlook.com,
        previously the domain hosted with the other service provider that time email’s are working good for both incoming/outgoing, but after the hosting to godaddy i am only able to send mail’s but no incoming mail’s.
        I used this mx record (ms1.panelforce.com) Prority (10) only, can you please help me out
        by sharing me other mx records are any other records to add.

  122. Thank you Mr. Anand Kumar for the article and all the help and support you are providing.
    I have a problem, and hoping you have a solution.

    I had domain bought from enom and registered with windows live, I could access my [email protected] looking like a hotmail account for years. Then, my domain name registration expired, and I had to re-buy the domain name again but lost the configuration in it.

    I can still access my email account, can send, but does not receive.
    Do you think there is a way to get the MX records again and use your guide to activate things again ?

    Your advice is very much appreciated,
    Best Regards
    Q

  123. hi i have registered to registered.com to create custom domain name. however i want to make a backup due to i have alot of email stored in outlook web and i want to create a pst file on my local for safety in case something happens to my emails on the web. how can i create a backup. when i tried installing outlook2013 and tried to sync to the web it wont allow me.