Given the comments posted on our Outlook.com server settings page, we realized that some people are having problems enabling a TLS secure connection on Windows Live Mail. This article describes how to enable TLS on Windows Live Mail.

What is TLS?

TLS stands for Transport Layer Security and basically it is used as a secured protocol to send emails. TLS is based on SSL v3.0 and it works on the same principles as a web secure (SSL) connection. For more technical details, see this Microsoft page.

How to enable TLS on Windows Live Mail

Most email clients, like Outlook or Thunderbird, give you the clear option to enable TLS for your outgoing mail server. However, on Windows Live Mail, Microsoft decided not to use the TLS terminology. It is kind of strange, since on the other Microsoft email clients (Outlook or Outlook Express) they do use the TLS terminology.

Practically, to enable TLS on Windows Live Mail, you simply have to select “my outgoing mail server requires authentication” on your outgoing mail server settings and make sure you input the correct TLS port number (the default port is 587, but some email providers may use a different port number).

That is it! Windows Live Mail will correctly handle the TLS protocol… it’s just that the TLS protocol is not explicitly shown on the Windows Live Mail server settings interface, thus causing confusion among users.

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