# Hotmail and Cookies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 12, 2003, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotmail-and-cookies/160734 "2003-03-12T03:51:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![PHA\_for\_life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@PHA\_for\_life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PHA_for_life)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotmail-and-cookies/160734/1 "2003-03-12T03:51:08Z")
I just spent three hours on the phone with microsoft and dell trying to figure out what is wrong with my CPU. The problem is that when i try to login to my hotmail account it says “Your Web browser options are currently set to disable cookies. To use .NET Passport, you must enable cookies.” I set my security settings and my privacy setting to accept all cookies. Needless to say, i still cannot access my hotmail account. Any suggestions to what is up or hot to solve the problem? thanks ---
**Author:** ![Peanuthead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peanuthead/32/360_2.png) [@Peanuthead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanuthead)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotmail-and-cookies/160734/2 "2003-03-12T09:21:41Z")
Try restarting you computer. Some settings don’t take effect till you restart. And welcome to the SDMB! ---
**Author:** ![PHA\_for\_life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@PHA\_for\_life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PHA_for_life)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotmail-and-cookies/160734/3 "2003-03-12T13:35:21Z")
i also have already tried this angle, but no success. thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotmail-and-cookies/160734/4 "2003-03-12T14:00:57Z")
I had this happen to me once too. The problem began after I’d installed some third-party software that integrated itself into IE. In the end all I could do was reformat my hard drive and reinstall everything. But there is something I didn’t try, because I didn’t know you could do it: you can [remove IE](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=164236&highlight=remove+browser) and then renstall it. See if that works. ---
**Author:** ![Mort\_Furd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mort\_Furd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mort_Furd)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotmail-and-cookies/160734/5 "2003-03-12T15:59:20Z")
Well, I can’t find it in IE, but Mozilla lets you accept or reject cookies based on the server. You may very well be set up to accept cookies in general, but to reject cookies from the passport server. ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotmail-and-cookies/160734/6 "2003-03-12T16:22:02Z")
Ok I just fixed the problem with me. I had the same thing happening and I found that is you do not use passport it works. So go to google, manually type in Hotmail and you the _old_ log-in screen. Type your username and password in that way. It’s kind of like using the side door. But if you just click the icon from [msn.com](http://msn.com) it won’t work. I went around and around with this, when my wife came up to me and said, why don’t you just go through google, and not use passport… and it worked. Though my wife is kinda like pooh, she always says the most simple humbling answers that always turn out to be right… ---
**Author:** ![PHA\_for\_life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@PHA\_for\_life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PHA_for_life)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotmail-and-cookies/160734/7 "2003-03-12T17:07:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Phlosphr \* > \*\*Ok I just fixed the problem with me. I had the same thing happening and I found that is you do not use passport it works. So go to google, manually type in Hotmail and you the _old_ log-in screen. Type your username and password in that way. It’s kind of like using the side door. > > But if you just click the icon from [msn.com](http://msn.com) it won’t work. I went around and around with this, when my wife came up to me and said, why don’t you just go through google, and not use passport… and it worked. Though my wife is kinda like pooh, she always says the most simple humbling answers that always turn out to be right… \*\* thanks for you help, but i still cannot access my account using the technique that you suggested phlosphr. maybe you could supply me with a link to the URL that you are using to log-in on the old hotmail screen. i would greatly appreciate it if you could. thank you, ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotmail-and-cookies/160734/8 "2003-03-12T19:30:40Z")
I find that having “3rd party cookies” disabled causes probelms for .Net sites such hotmail. There is a cycle of cookie passing going on (completely unnecessary of course just to access Hotmail) that sends cookies from a bunch of sites. Of course having “3rd party cookies” disabled is smart but MS …