If you use Hotmail there are several ways to check your mail.

1. Physically login to mail.live.com or hotmail.com and check manually.
2. Use the Windows Live Mail e-mail client. Minimize when not in use and you’ll see a system tray notification when new mails arrive (identical to the way Outlook Express worked).
3. Use the Windows Live Messenger and watch for a notification. Unfortunately you have to have that software open (meaning not minimized) just to see if there’s any new mail or not. For example, if a mail was sent to you 30 minutes ago and you weren’t at your computer, you didn’t see the "toaster" pop-up notification, so you have to physically open the client just to see if mail is there.

Is there a better way to do this?

Yes.

You can use aMSN as a Hotmail notifier (much like the Gmail notifier).

What aMSN does (aside from being a Windows Live/MSN alternative messenger):

When aMSN checks your mail and you have a new message, it puts a nice small envelope icon in the system tray – with a sound notification and a toaster pop-up. When you click the envelope, it opens up your browser (even if it’s Firefox or Opera), logs in to Hotmail and goes straight to the message.

When you read the message, the envelope goes away unless there’s more new mail.

Aside from using the Windows Live Mail client, this is the fastest, easiest and most useful way to check your Hotmail account for new mail.

"But I don’t use Windows Live messaging…"

If you don’t feel like using it, just set yourself to "Appear Offline" mode. Done deal. It still checks the mail which is what counts.

aMSN is a free alternative to Windows Live Messenger. The immediate advantage of using aMSN is that it is not as memory-hungry as the client delivered by Microsoft.

In addition, as far as an alternative messenger app is concerned, this one more closely resembles traditional-looking clients rather than something totally new that takes you a few days to learn everything. aMSN is laid out in such a way where just about everything is familiar to those who have used the regular WLive client. (Even the system tray icon is familiar-looking.)

Lastly, aMSN is not just for Windows. It also runs on OS X and Linux. So if you use multiple operating systems, aMSN will look the same no matter what you run. Try it out – you may like it.

Oh, and by the way, if you were looking for a simple Hotmail notifier (something that tells you when mail comes in), even if you don’t use the chat features aMSN sits neatly in the tray and puts a small envelope icon there when you receive new mail. You can click on the envelope and get your mail afterwards. Nice touch.

aMSN is a freeware clone of the popular Windows Live (formerly MSN) Messenger. While it’s true there are other alternative instant messaging applications out there, there are a few perks to aMSN the other guys don’t have:

• Available for Linux, Windows, Mac OS X (Universal) and FreeBSD
• Can do voice clips
• Can do display pictures
• Can do custom emoticons
• Has webcam support
• Has reliable user-to-user file transfers
• Has tabbed chat windows

..and more. You can see a full feature list on their home page.

Probably the best feature is that aMSN looks like a “light” version of the Windows Live Messenger. It is not something where you have to spend a lot of time learning it as everything “fits” well when using it.

Using the true Windows Live Messenger is the best way to get all the features out of the service, however, aMSN is the best alternative to the native client (and runs faster).

Bonus: aMSN can be extended easily with its many plugins.