The NEW MSN FAQs

Below you can find some Q & AS, some community members have asked.

1. So now there are at least four places for questions about MSN: this forum, the'classic' Microsoft Community MSN forum and theMSN Solution Center atanswers.msn.com, with questions about MSN.com email accounts still covered by theOutlook.com forums. Is this likely to change in the near future?

During this preview period, until 9/30, there are two MSN.com forums, one for the MSN Classic experience and one for the New MSN experience.

The New MSN will not impact or change the availability of a forums for other Microsoft product areas.  So, the subscribers of MSN Explorer will still have a forum and the users of Outlook.com will still have a forum. 

2. How accurate is this KB article now: How to contact MSN Customer Support?

This KB is accurate and correct.  The subscriber to MSN Explorer will have access to support phone numbers through support.msn.com after signing in with the subscriber MSN account.

3. How relevant is this one: MSN Support?

This site will retire on 9/30 when New MSN launches globally.  It will be replaced by two separate product pages on Support.microsoft.com, one for MSN Explorer subscribers and one for MSN.com users.

4. Do I need an MSN subscription to use the New MSN experience? Or is it enough to have an MSN.com account? What difference would having an MSN subscription make to my New MSN experience? I realize that the preview is open to everyone, but will this change when all users will be using the new MSN?

No, New MSN is a free experience for all users.  And, subscribers to MSN Explorer may also opt to have New MSN as their home page in MSN Explorer.

5. In short, is there anywhere that explains clearly what MSN is and does, with clear instructions where to go for assistance? Or will customers continue to be sent on wild goose chases that as often as not end up where they started

New MSN is a content experience that brings the best online content to customers related to News, Weather, Sports, Money, Autos, Travel, Entertainment, Lifestyles, Health and Fitness, Food and Dining.  The Basics page will help provide great detail about how to customize this experience, how to roam and sync across all devices, how to sign in and so on. You can also find useful information at*http://about.msn.com*.

MSN Explorer is an internet browser that provides subscribers with a single portal into all of their online assets, including email, as well as access to online content.  For some subscribers, MSN Explorer is also their dial-up access to the internet.

6. Windows 8(.1) users can already do this without install the MSN app. What's different?

Today, users of Windows 8/8.1 can sync their apps across Windows devices.  With the New MSN, users will also be able to sync apps across all devices and OS, including iOS, Android, and Android tablet.

7. Windows 7 & Vista users won't have an MSN charm or an MSN app. How will they change their Settings?

The New MSN is both a web site to be accessed via desktop PC’s as well as a series of apps.  In the web site, customers can change setting by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right hand corning of the website.

There is also a ton of great info on this website: http://onlinehelp.microsoft.com/en-us/msn/thebasics.aspx

8. What is the difference between MSN.com and MyMSN and MSN Explorer?

MSN.com or MyMSN are not a paid services, and MSN Explorer are paid services, which provides user access to the internet, to their inbox and to many other additional services.

MSN Explorer (Premium and Dial Up) Subscribers are entitled to phone support by virtue of their subscription.  MSN.com customers areNOT entitled to assisted support.

9. Where can MSN Explorer customer "get support"?

If you are an MSN Explorer subscriber, there is a forum just for you. Please visit MSN Answersto find answers to your questions about MSN Explorer, including the new MSN.com home page, accessing your email through "the butterfly", and billing related issues.

10. Customizing and personalizing your MSN HomePage - Will I have the ability to set up a favorites page on the new MSN?

Customize once and enjoy everywhere. The new MSN allows you to sync your data from apps across all of your devices and browsers, including the MSN website and MSN apps on your devices. In general most personalized items can sync across your devices by signing into the MSN site or your MSN app with a Microsoft account.

How do I… Customize

To get started customizing your new MSN Home Page, sign in with your Microsoft account, locate and click on your account name in the upper right hand corner of the Home Page and select Customize this page.

Personalize

Make MSN your own by personalizing the information that you see by setting Favorites. For example, your favorite sports teams and players in the Sports page, create shopping lists in the Food and Drink page or add a customized list of stocks to track on the Watchlist in the Money page.

Whether you choose to personalize your MSN or not, you can still view the trending and popular topics.

For additional helpful topics about the New MSN, please visit*http://onlinehelp.microsoft.com/en-us/msn/ff189313.aspx .*

11. Where did My MSN stock quotes, MSN Money Watchlist and Portfolio Manager go?

My MSN stock quotes, MSN Money Watchlist and Portfolio manager accounts were all migrated to the new "My Watchlist"!

Scroll down to "Money" and click on My Watchlist

Know more about My Watchlist

Learn more about the new features in MyWatchlist by clicking here: My Watchlist: FAQ

You may have recently imported data from the Classic MSN or my.msn.com  pages to the new MSN.com Money Watchlist/Portfolio and may not have received all of your Watchlist/Portfolio data. The MSN team has resolved the issue and you can now regain access to that information by following the steps below.

Note: These steps only apply if your Watchlist has already been imported and there is data missing. If you have not already imported a Watchlist, please go to the Watchlist, sign in, and you will then be prompted to begin the import. You may need to return to this step if you find that data is missing after your first attempt to import.

Step 1: Create a new Watchlist and delete any Watchlists from previous imports

Step 2: Re-import your existing Watchlist or Portfolio data from MSN.com or my.msn.com into a new Watchlist

Step 3: Clean any erroneous data imported into your new Watchlist(s).

If you need more details about the steps, please go to this article.

12.  Will this new MSN allow users to visit and leave comments on the social forum after the article...like the old classic MSN?

Right now, you can access the community forum at the ‘ table of contents’ page of the online help content.  Meaning, if you click from there into an article and thereafter want to engage in the forum, you would have to return to the table of contents to get to the link to the forum.  However, in the article, you can leave feedback about the article itself by clicking on the ‘Feedback’ link at the top of the article.

Once we launch the New MSN, at the end of this month, all articles will ask the user if this content helped to solve the issue and, if not, will offer the user a link to the community.

In both cases, the user can leave comments in the forum after reading an article; but, when we launch the new MSN at the end of the month, it will be easier to do so.

13. Is MSN Games going away?

No, MSN games will still be available.

14. Where are my favorites?

In any browser, there will be a way to identify your favorite web sites and to save those URLs for quick access later.  For example, in Internet Explorer, you can click on “Favorites” which is the fourth link from the left in the upper most nav bar.

If you only want to create a list of favorite sites, you would choose to simply add the site to your favorites.  But, you can also create another stripe or bar just below the nav bar which would contain any favorites that you ‘add to the favorites bar’.

15. Why can't RSS feeds be added in modules such as News, rather than having MSN choose our news sources?

You cannot add specific RSS feeds, but you can add topics as well as change/add alternative locations for local news coverage.

In the New MSN site, on the News page, scroll down to just below “Crime” news and there will be a local stripe with local content.   The name of this stripe is the location set as the user’s News home location.  You can add several locations to the ‘favorite locations’ list in this stripe by clicking on the + in the star icon, just to the right of the location.  Then if you click on the location, a drop down list of all locations will be there and you can add more locations.  In that same drop down, you can select which location should be the ‘home’ for the Local stripe.   

Also, at the header of the News page, there is a link on the right to “My Topics”.  You can define any topic and add it to ‘My Topics’.  Once it is added to My Topics, you will find this topic in content in two ways:  you can find results just for this topic by clicking on My Topics on the news page and if you are on the related page (e.g. the home page today stripe, or the sports page if a sports topic) the ‘My Topics’ content will be filtered in among all of the returns on that page.

16. How can you for example customize the “food and dining” experience?

In New MSN on the Food & Dining page, users can create collections of recipes.  First at the top right corner of the page, click ‘My Collections’ and highlight one of the ‘Untitled Collections’ and type in a new name for the collection.  Then, go to the recipe that you wish to add.  In all recipes on New MSN, there is the option to add the recipe to one of the collections.

If there is a cooking website that the user wants to remember, the user can use the “Favorites” list in the browser.  For Internet Explorer, “Favorites” drop down list is the 4^th^from the left on the bar just beneath the address bar.  The Favorites drop down offers not only the list of sites that have been previously added, but the ability to add or remove other sites from the list.

17. Morning Star Growth Grade’ Letter boxes A thru F what are those for and how do you use them?

Dividend yield is one of the main factors to consider when investing in dividend-paying stocks.

Morning Star Profitable Grade is based on return on shareholders' equity (ROE) using data from the past five years. Companies with less than four years of consecutive ROE figures, including the ROE figure for the latest fiscal year, are excluded from the calculations. For the remaining universe of stocks the profitability grade is based on the following three components:

(1) The historical growth rate of ROE.

(2) The average level of historical ROE.

(3) The level of ROE in the latest fiscal year.

The Morningstar Growth Grade is based on the trend in revenue per share using data from the past five years. For the purpose of calculating revenue per share we use the past five years' revenue figures and corresponding year-end fully diluted shares outstanding; if year-end fully diluted shares outstanding is not available, we calculate this figure by dividing the company's reported net income applicable to common shareholders by the reported fully diluted earnings per share. A company must have a minimum of four consecutive years of positive and non-zero revenue, including the latest fiscal year, to qualify for a grade.

I suggest you to refer to the following MSN article to know more about the information that you are looking for.

http://appexfinanceappupdate.blob.core.windows.net/financedocs/en-US/Watchlist/index.html

Here's a link leading to Morningstar's Glossary which is more up-to-date than Microsoft Money's.

http://www.morningstar.com/InvGlossary/Default.aspx?letter=%23