How to Manage your Windows Live Hotmail Contacts

Merge Duplicate Contacts:

1. Sign in to Windows Live Hotmail then click People.
2. Select the check boxes next to the contacts for the same person.
3. At the top of the page click Manage.
4. Click Merge.
5. If necessary, edit the contact details.
6. Click Save.

 Clean up Duplicate Contacts:  

1. Sign in to Windows Live Hotmail then click People.
2. At the top of the page click Manage.
3. Click Clean up contacts.
4. Click Clean up duplicate contacts.
5. Duplicate contacts are listed with the number of matches found.  Contacts containing the same information are identified as Exact matches. Contacts containing similar information, such as the same e-mail address or the same name are identified as Similar matches.
6. From the list, select a name.
7. To delete a duplicate contact, check the box next to it, then click Delete.
          – or –
   To merge the information of duplicate contacts, click Merge.
8. Click Save.
9. Repeat these steps for each name on the list.  

Importing Contacts:

1. Before you can import your contacts into Windows Live, you must first export them to a file from your other e-mail program or service.  See the Help documentation for your other e-mail program or service for more information.
2. Sign in to Windows Live Hotmail then click People.
3. At the top of the page click Manage.
4. Click Import.
5. Under Option 2: Import from a file, select the e-mail program or service that you want to import your contacts from.
6. To find the file that you want to import, click Browse.
7. Locate the file, and then click Open.
8. Click Import contacts.  

Export contacts to a CSV file:

1. Sign in to Windows Live Hotmail then click People.
2. At the top of the page click Manage.
3. Click Export, followed by Export contacts.
4. Click Save.
5. Select the file location, then click Save.
6. Your contacts are downloaded into a Comma Separated Values (CSV) file, in which the comma character (,) separates each field of text. To edit or use them, import the saved file into a spreadsheet, e-mail program, or word processing document.