Microsoft has advised Hotmail users struggling to access their email accounts to surf via Google’s Chrome browser in order to successfully connect to the recently overhauled service.

The software vendor finally rolled out its latest version of Hotmail to its 350 million users last week, but since then the company has faced plenty of complaints from disgruntled customers unhappy with the new interface.

Many have griped that emails have disappeared and that scripting errors in Hotmail prevent them from composing new messages.

Others cannot access their accounts at all, and the grumbles are continuing to mount up in the Hotmail forums.

Some users are furious at Microsoft for rolling out a buggy product without fully testing it first.

Microsoft, via the Hotmail forum, has been advising its customers to stop using Safari 3 and Firefox 2 in order to access its free webmail service.

The new Hotmail supports – unsurprisingly – various flavours of its own Internet Explorer browser, Firefox 3, Safari 4 and the stable version of Chrome on Windows.

Redmond said last week that its product group was looking into complaints from users, who were struggling to view messages. At the time it asked those affected by the Hotmail glitches to tell the firm what type of internet connection and ISP they were using.

In the meantime it recommended an interesting workaround: “Some customers have indicated that if they use Google Chrome to view their Hotmail account they no longer encounter this problem,” said Microsoft.

But even that solution isn't satisfying everyone.

Hotmail user with the handle 'shelabobby' hit back at Microsoft's suggested fixes and workarounds.

"My computer completely stalls when I open my Hotmail. Yes, I have the same issue if I use Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Google Chrome. Yes, I have the same problem if I use another computer, and No, I don't see any script errors because my computer freezes as soon as the window is open," she complained.

"I'm not saying I don't like the new features, but I have very important emails I have needed to reply to for three days now. If you're going to keep the features it would be nice if while you are working to fix them you have an option to revert back to the old version till its fixed," she said before signing off as a "Very frustrated user".

Others have said they will abandon Hotmail following the revamp, because they feel that Microsoft isn't dealing adequately with their gripes about the service.

Meanwhile there were sporadic reports on Twitter overnight that suggested the service was completely down for some users.

The Register has asked Microsoft to tell us more about what's gone wrong, but we're still waiting to hear back. ®