A look at the new Hotmail (images)

Hotmail's new "active view" uses Silverlight to allow photos to show in a fancy slideshow, as opposed to just as a series of attachments that need to be downloaded.

Office documents sent to Hotmail can be opened via Microsoft's new browser-based Office Web Apps, meaning that the recipient no longer needs their own copy of Office installed to view or edit documents.

A look at how a message full of photos appears when sent from the new Hotmail. The photos themselves are uploaded to an online Skydrive folder.

Hotmail's new "sweep" feature lets users take all the messages from a particular sender and either delete them or sweep them into a particular folder. Optionally, that same action can be taken on future messages from the sender.