What if you want to forward a message including all its possibly complex header information, though? Though Windows Live Hotmail does not offer a "Forward as Attachment" button, forwarding one or more messages attached is possible.
Forward an Email as an Attachment in Windows Live Hotmail
To forward a message including all its header information and formatting — as an email attachment — from Windows Live Hotmail:
- Save the email you want to forward to your desktop or another folder on your hard disk.
- For privacy, you can remove or obfuscate some of the original message's email addresses (in the From:, To: and Cc: fields) in the text editor when saving the EML file.
- Now open the message you want to forward in Windows Live Hotmail on the web.
- Click Forward (or press Ctrl-Shift-F with Windows Live Hotmail keyboard shortcuts enabled).
- Highlight everything following your signature (the original message including some header lines and the horizontal line above it).
- Press Del or Backspace.
- Click Attachments under Insert:.
- Find and pick the EML file you saved previously.
- You can save, attach and forward more than one message in this manner; do make sure the emails you forward do belong together, however, or recipients might get confused or miss an important attachment.
- Address the forward using the To:, Cc: and Bcc: fields.
- In the message body, explain how the message or messages you are forwarding is relevant for each recipient.
- Click Send (or Save draft, of course, to continue later).
Note that some email programs an services — including Windows Live Hotmail itself — may not display the forwarded message attachment online or at all. Downloading the EML file and opening that should be possible, however.
(Updated May 2012)
