Thanks. Whatever the problem was, it persisted for a week or two, but is now gone. I access my Hotmail account from multiple machines, and had the same symptoms on each machine, and they spontaneously cleared up all at approxiately the same time on each machine, so I know it's not a problem with my browser settings or anything. The problem was on Hotmail's end.
Now, however, I find my e-mails are 'fractured'; that is, the very bottom portion of the e-mail page that has the links to 'feedback', and 'my account', and whatever else, that line appears somewhere in the middle of my incoming mails, and obscures part of the actual message. A click on my browser's 'refresh' button usually clears it, but it's a pain. Again, on multiple machines. Again, not my problem, but Hotmail's.
It's obvious what Hotmail is trying to do: eliminate real, live, knowledgeable, trained tech support in return for a cost savings that they hope will attract and hold more customers, and trying to disguise it as an improvement, since all users may access it and contribute the sum of their knowledge and experience; but you are shooting yourselves in the foot. People don't want to post a problem, wait for days for an answer, and hope that some one sees it who knows what they're talking about, and can give an answer that the user is technically capable of implementing.
What I want is a service department I can contact directly and immediately, live and in real time, tell them my problem, and have them fix it! Not everybody has time to screw around for days or weeks struggling with something that the e-mail service provider can and should be dealing with. It's called 'Customer Service', not "Do It Yourself". This is like going to the dealer for a car repair, and being handed a wrench and a screwdriver. :>(
