Is this genuine?

[Plastic Nev]

Considering the scammers seem to be getting more persuasive at writing their scam mails, and also so far I cannot seem to find any news from Microsoft about this, I am a bit concerned about this E Mail!
Why send it and ask you to look for and install an update that I would expect to come in with normal updates?
Here is a copy, unless you know for sure they are OK don't click any links :-


Important information about your email service
Dear user,
In a few weeks, we will be making some changes to our email services that might impact your @outlook.com, @hotmail, @live or @msn email account. These changes will prevent your email from being delivered to the Windows Live Mail 2012 application that you use.
In order to continue using Windows Live Mail 2012 to send and receive email for your account, you need to install the latest update published here.
If you use Windows Live Mail 2012 on Windows 8, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10, we recommend that you switch to the built-in Mail app in Windows to stay connected and get the latest feature updates on Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10.
Windows Live Essentials 2009 and 2011 are not supported any more, and you will need to update to Windows 8/8.1 or Windows 10 and use the Mail app, or use www.outlook.com. To learn more about the Mail app, please click here.
We also recommend all Windows Live Mail users on Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 to upgrade to Windows 10 and use the built-in Mail application to stay connected and get the latest feature updates.
We suggest saving this email so you can refer to it later.
Thank you for your understanding and continued use.
Yours sincerely,
The Outlook team

 

[AWS]

I clicked the links, figured since I'm on OSX I would be safe from any exe that might try to install, and they did go to a microsoft.com domain so I think this is genuine.

The first link goes to the Windows 10 mail update download page. It too was a valid download. The rest are links to how to setup the mail app.

Scammers are getting smarter, less grammar mistakes, so it is odd Microsoft chose to do this instead of push it out in Windows update. It could be because of mobile devices.

Doing it this way will allow them to push the update to all devices.

After clicking the outlook.com link it does indeed seem that the reason they are doing this is because people with mobile devices can get the update.

 

[starbuck]

I had this email, a week or so ago.
Like Bob says, it is genuine.

 

[Plastic Nev]

Thanks both, with it coming a day after I got a definite but very cleverly worded scam mail for Paypal, I wasn't too sure.

 

[Plastic Nev]

For anyone who may still be running Windows live mail 2011 or earlier, you will have to update to 2012, this article explains how.

http://windowslivemailtutorial.com/download-windows-live-mail-2012.php