Sydney Uni students vent about Microsoft email system

Microsoft released a statement today confirming the University had selected Live@edu as its default student email system.

"The University initially began looking at solutions as the old system offered limited email and online storage capabilities," Microsoft said.

Representatives of the student body and "other key academic and administrative stakeholders" across the University reportedly piloted the new email system before committing to it.

But it appears not all students are happy with the change.

Several hit the Bored of Studies forum and individual blogs to vent frustration, particularly at the supposed lack of features available to users of non-Microsoft browsers.

"Most of the settings pages for the e-mail service are completely unavailable in Firefox [or] Safari," an engineering student posted on the rantingfrog blog.

"We can create filters, adjust some very basic spell-check settings, change how our calendar is displayed and choose our localisation.

"[But] we cannot access the following tabs: Automatic Replies, Deleted Items options, Mail options, General options, Change Password, Voice Mail options, Junk E-Mail options.

"Are you serious, Microsoft? We are forced to use Internet Explorer specifically to change our password? Even just to access the general options?

"At worst this is intentionally anti-competitive," rantingfrog said.

Users of the Bored of Studies forums reported issues with access via Entourage, password problems and dislike of the user interface.

One user, jb_nc, said the interface could be de-cluttered by using the "blind and low vision experience" option under the Options > Settings > Accessibility tab in Internet Explorer.

"Voila, unsh*t email," jb_nc posted.

Some 46,000 students at the University will now use the Live@edu system.

Its benefits are said to include an increased mailbox capacity (10GB), calendaring and contact management.