Messenger Upgrading To Skype

[shivvy]

I received an email today from The Messenger Team telling me that on 8th April Messenger will be upgrading to Skype.
I think I remember seeing some other emails coming in about this but I was dealing with a bereavement and to be honest I took no notice of them.

However what I now need to know is:
- Is it talking about changing the old instant messaging thing? (If so, I never use it and don't feel the need to Skype)
- Is it necessary/compulsory to upgrade?
- Is there a cost involved?
- If I do nothing will it just go away and I won't have to think about it again?!

Thanks.

[gen2]

I don't think you need to do anything if you never used Messenger.

Skype is free for computer to computer communications but costs if you want to connect to a telephone number.

[shivvy]

So it won't affect my hotmail account then gen2?

[Gizmonster]

It all depends how you currently access your hotmail emails at the mo. I used to use messenger to access my hotmail emails and I'm assuming that messenger will be disabled, so I've found that the easiest way to access hotmail emails is to go to:

http://uk.msn.com/

The hotmail icon is in the top right hand corner :)

[VHG]

But note that hotmail is changing to outlook.com.

You have no choice about this and all hotmail users will have moved to outlook.com by the summer I think.

[shivvy]

Ah, see I think I'm going to get confused now because I'm useless at this kind of thing but here goes . . .
I currently access my emails by using an icon called Windows Live Mail. I like it because it is laid out like a specific email 'thingy' and not just a webpage if that makes sense?
I think I registered for that outlook.com VHG. Is it the same as the Microsoft Office Outlook icon that I have on my screen? I currently use it just for remembering tasks but it would suit if I could use it for emails too.