I am sure most people have a Hotmail email account. For me, Hotmail was my first email account and my cousin helped me registered it 16 years ago. Back then the 2 most popular free email service provider was Hotmail and Yahoo. Google’s Gmail is still unheard of because they only started in year 2004. Back then most people were using ICQ messenger and for some unknown reason everyone started to switch to Windows Live Messenger (back then it was called MSN Messenger). As long as you have a Hotmail, MSN or Live account, you can instantly sign in to Windows Live Messenger.

However if you’ve noticed, some people uses their Gmail account or even their own personal domain name (such as raymond@raymond.com) to sign in to Windows Live Messenger. I never had the interest to know how to do that because I have my personal Hotmail account which I use to sign in to Windows Live Messenger. Recently one of my old friend that is not very good in computer wanted to use Windows Live Messenger to talk to his kids in overseas. He already have a Gmail account and he didn’t want to register an extra Hotmail account just for that as he claimed that old people find it harder to remember login names and passwords.

If you try logging in to Windows Live Messenger with your Gmail username and password, it won’t work and you will only get the error “We can’t sign you in to Windows Live Messenger. The Windows Live ID or password you entered is incorrect. Error code: 80048821″. The trick is, you will still need to do a one time sign up for a Windows Live ID with your Gmail address.

1. Go to http://www.passport.net

2. Scroll down a bit and click on the Get started now link for Use an e-mail address you already have.

3. Enter your Gmail for email address, your password, secret question and answer and finally the verification code, then click the Continue button.

4. Review and sign the agreements by typing your email address in the box and click I Accept.

5. Login to your Gmail and you should receive an email from Windows Live Team asking you to confirm your email address for Windows Live ID. Click on the confirmation link to complete the process.

You can now sign in to Windows Live Messenger using your Gmail or non hotmail/msn/live email address. If you want people to add you to their Windows Live Messenger contact list, just give them your Gmail email address instead.