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Frequently asked questions

Find answers to frequently asked questions about Office Live Small Business.

About Office Live Small Business

What do I get with Office Live Small Business services?

Office Live Small Business provides your company with everything needed to create a professional web presence for free, including easy-to-use website design and management tools, and 100 email accounts. You also get a free suite of professional business applications that will allow you to manage customers, projects, and documents and easily share information with employees, customers, suppliers and vendors. All this is security-enhanced, managed, and maintained by Office Live Small Business.

You can also purchase additional features that help promote your business. Get a custom domain name, your "address on the web," additional website storage, Premium Email, and more. See our pricing details page for more information.

Learn more about what’s included with Office Live Small Business services.

Is Office Live Small Business really free?

When you sign up for Office Live Small Business, you get a website, web hosting and web design tools, site traffic reports, a contact management system, and online business applications to help you manage your business—all for free! There are additional features you can get at affordable prices. See our pricing details page for more information.

Is Office Live Small Business offered outside the United States?

Yes. Office Live Small Business is currently available in the following languages and countries/regions: English (Canada, India, U.K., U.S.); French (Canada, France); German (Germany); Japanese (Japan); and Mexico (Spanish).

What are the system requirements?

The system requirements vary by service. Read our system requirements for details.

What is a beta?

A beta is a test version of a program or service that Microsoft asks users to try out for a period of time. Microsoft will use feedback from beta users to help improve the final version of the product that is released to market.

Are Office Live Small Business services the same thing as Microsoft Office, only available as an online subscription?

No. Our service does not provide the Microsoft Office suite as a subscription or hosted online offering. Office Live Small Business services offer small business owners/managers a company domain name, hosted Website for marketing your business, email, a password protected private Website for sharing information with key contacts, and over 20 internet-based applications that can help you automate common business tasks such as management of customers, projects and documents.

These hosted applications will work independently to provide essential tools to automate your daily tasks; however, they will also seamlessly integrate with popular Microsoft products like Microsoft Office Outlook, Excel and Word.

What is the difference between Microsoft Office Live Workspace and Office Live Small Business?

Office Live Workspace is the online companion to Microsoft Office enabling individuals to store, access and share documents from anywhere. Office Live Small Business is a complete set of services that are designed to serve the needs of small businesses, which also includes the ability to store and share documents.

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Domain names

What is a domain name?

A domain name points to a unique place on the Internet, a Web address, such as www.northwindtraders.com, where customers, clients, and vendors can find your business. Acquiring your business domain name is the first step to take in getting your business online. The domain name protects your business brand from competitors and also reserves a customized address for a future website or email accounts.

What is the difference between a fourth-level domain and a custom domain?

When you sign up, you get a fourth-level domain (for FREE!)
When you sign up for Office Live Small Business, you automatically get a fourth-level domain name based on your user name. It looks something like yourname.Web.officelive.com. It’s called a fourth-level domain because it has four parts separated by dots. Fourth-level domains are long and don’t say much about your business, but they do the job. Think of it as a “starter domain,” one that you’ll eventually want to replace with something relevant to your business and that grabs the attention of Internet users.

You can replace your fourth-level domain with a custom domain
You can purchase more domain names if you don’t like your fourth-level domain name. Additional domain names you acquire and manage under your account are considered custom domains because you get to choose the name, like fourthcoffee.com, that can more effectively represent your business on the World Wide Web.

What is domain redelegation?

It’s a way for you to keep your existing domain name (like www.adventure-works.com) and start using Office Live Small Business. Domain redelegation lets you tell your current domain registrar (the company responsible for your domain records) to associate your domain name with new website hosting and email services. Read more about how to redirect your domain name to Office Live Small Business

If I opt to redelegate my domain, how do I move my website content to Office Live Small Business?

If you have already created a website, just save all of your existing website files including pictures, sound files, and video clips to your computer. After you sign up for an Office Live Small Business account, you'll be able to easily transfer all your files to your new website. You can preview and make changes to your website until all your pages look exactly the way you want.

What happens to my email after my current site is moved to Office Live Small Business?

Once you redirect your domain to Office Live Small Business, you’ll need to recreate the email accounts you had with your previous registrar in your new account. For example, if your domain name is northwindtraders.com and your email address is jim@northwindtraders.com, then you can create this same account in your Office Live Small Business account. You may be able to access email messages that were sent to your email account with your previous domain registrar for a period of time after you move to Office Live Small Business.

We recommend that you save your messages, calendar items, and contact information either before redirecting your domain or immediately afterwards. Messages sent after you have created the new accounts will appear in your Office Live Small Business Inbox. You should be aware that some email, however, sent after you requested the name server change (but before your site is moved and the new email accounts set up) may be lost.

What is private registration for domain names?

The registrant information for all domain names is available in a public database (find out more by reading ICANN frequently asked questions), regardless of whom you registered your domain with. Because of this public availability, third-parties do have access to your name, contact information and domain name for their marketing communications, some of which can be misleading. So, please read the small print.

To avoid third parties from contacting you to sell or market their products and services, Office Live Small Business provides Private Registration free with every new customer domain name purchased and registered through Microsoft Office Live. This will hide the personal registration and contact information from public view within the ICANN database.

One of the advantages of having domain name private registration is to avoid being contacted by third parties who can use information they find about you in the "Whois" directory. For example, there are "domain registration" companies who send out formal domain name expiration notices/invoices to Office Live Small Business customers on your renewal anniversaries in an attempt to get you to transfer/renew your domain name. They often charge a much higher annual renewal fee. While annoying and deceptive, this act is not illegal. Ensure that you are not hooked into paying these inflated amounts. Having a private registration is one way to avoid that kind of solicitation.

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Signing in

After I've signed up, how do I get into my new account?

Just go to Office Live Small Business and click the Sign in icon in the upper-right area of the page. You will be prompted for your Windows Live ID and password. Your Windows Live ID is the email address that you used to sign up for Office Live Small Business. Once you have correctly entered these, your Office Live Home displays. From here you can access all the features in your account.

I see that I must sign in with a Windows Live ID; what is that about?

When you signed up for Office Live Small Business, you either had an existing Windows Live ID or you created one during the sign-up process. The Windows Live ID service is designed to manage identity and trust among various Microsoft sites. Office Live Small Business is one of these.

Help; I've forgotten my password. Where do I find it?

To reset your password, go to Windows Live Account and on the summary page, under your user ID, you will see Password reset information. Follow the instructions to reset your password and your security question and answer.

I accidentally entered the wrong year for my birthday and now I can't create a site for my business. How do I fix that?

To change any of your registration information (correct a birthday, or change your marital status, for example), go to Windows Live Account and on the summary page, under your user ID, click Registered information. To change personal information, such as your phone number, click Billing information. After you have finished editing your information, click Save.

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Email

What do I get with Microsoft Office Live Mail?

With Office Live Small Business, you can create up to 100 email accounts and manage calendars, contacts and tasks from virtually any Web browser.

Can I use Microsoft Office Outlook to manage email, calendar, contacts, and tasks?

Yes, the Microsoft Office Outlook Connector enables two-way synchronization of email messages, calendar items (available when you purchase the Premium Email service), contacts, tasks, and notes between Outlook and Office Live Small business Mail. Read more information or download the Microsoft Office Outlook Connector.

What are the benefits of having my own business email address?

Having a personalized address that matches your business domain name (for example, jsmith@northwindtraders.com) gives your company a much more professional image when you communicate with customers and colleagues. Microsoft Office Live provides email services using your domain name and eliminates the need for you to own and maintain an in-house mail server on use an Internet Service Provider to handle your email.

Can I access my email from the road or a remote location?

Yes. You can easily access your email and update your calendar, contacts, and tasks from your own computer or almost any Internet-connected computer that uses Internet Explorer 6.0 or later.

Can I access my email and other business information when I am not connected to the Internet (offline)?

With the Microsoft Outlook Connectorcustomers can access and manage email, contacts, calendar, and tasks using their own copy of Microsoft Office Outlook.

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Security and privacy

How do I protect myself against computer viruses?

Know where your email is coming from. Be especially careful of email from unknown sources.

Be careful of attachments to your email. Be especially careful of executable attachments that end in .exe, .pif, or .vbs, among others, and never open attachments that you aren't completely sure about.

Make sure your email software is NOT set up to automatically download or install email attachments.

Email addresses can be spoofed, which means they can appear to be sent from a different address than they really came from. Don't automatically trust email from any address you recognize.

Install virus scanning software on your computer, and keep it updated.

Make sure your computer's operating system is up to date with the latest security upgrades.

And in case the worst happens and your computer is infected, make sure you have backups of your data files.

Are my credit card information and password safe?

When highly confidential information (such as a credit card number or password) is transmitted over the Internet, Microsoft protects it through the use of encryption, such as the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol. Encryption is the process of encoding data to prevent unauthorized access, especially during transmission. Encryption is usually based on one or more keys, or codes, that are essential for decoding, or returning the data to readable form.

What kinds of security measures has Microsoft taken to protect my company's confidential information on Office Live Small Business?

Microsoft follows the Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) when developing software. The process entails a series of security-focused activities and deliverables during each phase of Microsoft's software development process, including the development of threat models during software design, the use of code-scanning tools during implementation, conducting code reviews, and testing security during a focused "security push". Before software can be released, it must undergo a final security review by an independent development team. Software that has undergone the SDL experiences a significantly reduced rate of security vulnerabilities being discovered.

How does Office Live Small Business maintain the security of the data in my workspaces and business applications? How do I know someone won't steal my company's information?

The data you maintain on Office Live Small Business is stored in computer systems with limited access that are located in controlled facilities. Additionally, the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC), a worldwide security response system, was created to protect Microsoft customers from vulnerabilities in Microsoft software. The MSRC seeks information about software vulnerabilities, monitors for evidence of security incidents, and then responds quickly and aggressively to help protect customers from security threats when they emerge.

How can I control access to confidential areas of my workspaces and business applications?

Access to workspaces and business applications can be controlled by the administrator of the site, that is, the person who subscribes to the Office Live Small Business account. Administrators can grant access to users through specific levels of permission, such as Reader, Editor, and Administrator. These permission levels are set through the Account Settings area. The Administrator has full access to set user permissions and to add, modify, and delete information; Editors have full access to add, modify, and delete information; Readers have read-only access to information.

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Administration and support

What kind of support is included with Office Live Small Business?

Here’s a summary of our support options:

Support: Office Live Small Business	U.S.
Email	Yes
Online Help	Yes
FAQ	Yes
Community forums	Yes

All Office Live Small Business accounts include online help, email support, and communities.

How are my data and Website protected against system failures?

Microsoft uses redundant hardware and software systems to protect against system failures. Redundancy means that Microsoft uses one or more servers on a Website to perform the same tasks. If one of the servers crashes, another server takes its place. Redundancy ensures that the Website continues to function and you experience no loss of data if one of the servers stops working.

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