Hotmail desktop notifications using Internet Explorer 9

Ron

How many Hotmail users wish they could get email notifications right on their taskbar? With Internet Explorer 9, you are able to achieve this neat little feature.

As Microsoft’s Windows Team Blog mentions, this can easily be accomplished by logging into Hotmail via your Internet Explorer 9 and pinning Hotmail to your Windows taskbar. You will then begin to receive email notifications right on your taskbar! As Microsoft explains it: “When you’re signed into Hotmail and you’ve pinned it, we’ll show you a notification of how many new messages have arrived since you last checked your inbox.”

Basically, this feature is similar to the mail tile in Windows Phone 7. The icon will update to show your message count since the last time you accessed Hotmail. Once you read or clear a message in Hotmail, it will clear the icon on the taskbar. Pretty neat feature for those that are interested.

Here are some screenshots of this feature in action: