Unable to send or receive messages for the Windows Live Mail.

Well at least you tried Lucy and don't forget the SuperAntiSpyware it's good for the tracking stuff.
http://www.superantispyware.com/

Hmm that's odd Lucy as my laptop is IE11 and I have no problems at all as I have 8.1 on it and it uses my Hotmail account as a username

What address are you using?
Try these
http:\\www.outlook.com
http:\\outlook.com
www.outlook.com
outlook.com
https://login.live.com

Are your results different?

Click on the lock on the address bar - does that tell you anything?

LucyD said:

Hi, downloaded superantispyware and ran a full scan. Only found 2 cookies from Google and one from my ISP. All deleted. :) By the way, the newest wrinkle is that I.E. 11 will not connect to the hotmail sign in page - just a white blank page. However, no problem with Firefox or Chrome. :) Take care and thanks again. I haven't closed the account yet, still going through it and saving certain emails. Lucy

You could also try running IE without add-ons
Open the run box (start menu -> accessories -> run and type
iexplore.exe -extoff

You might get a page telling you that your add-on are off, then try www.outlook.com

InPrivate browsing might enble you to get to hotmail (live, outlook....however MS refers to it), but it's a longshot
Click on the IE gear, Click on safety, Click on InPrivate ( a new IE window is launched... to exit InPrivate, just close that IE window)
change things, but