I've had a Hotmail email account since before I had a Windows machine (or even Internet** access...
). At some point, I was given a Microsoft account recovery code, one that would be sent to a different email address*** when necessary. I don't recall the original code being very long, but the current one (provided in 2014) contains 29 characters. Even with my hit-and-miss typing, I'd far rather use this than give a phone number that might have to be changed (and that, anyway, I don't want M$ to have). As it happens, I did once have to use the code, though only Microsoft knows why this was necessary (though perhaps it was associated with an Outlook upgrade). My email stopped working and, as I rarely even visit my BT email, I hadn't noticed that Microsoft had sent me an email telling me to use the code to get Hotmail up and running again.)
** - At the time, I was using an Acorn Risc PC and did not have Internet access at home. However, as I was leaving the company I worked for -- the site was being closed down and I couldn't accept a transfer to a distant site (for personal reasons) someone showed me, on a PC at work, how to get a Hotmail account. I've had it ever since.
*** - As it happens, I've never used that email address, or the one I had before, very often, as they both were associated with the ISPs I've used. I want an email address that will persist****, whatever Internet provider I might have. (Of course, there's no guarantee that my Hotmail/Outlook account will persist, but it has done since 2001, so that's a couple of decades.)
**** - I had an AOL account, but they sold their email service to someone else, a company that required one to keep using it or risk losing it. When I didn't, the account was frozen and I didn't get my AOL bills. For some reason, this upset AOL, even though they could still be paid... the email alert played no part, as far as I could tell, in the billing process, which just took money off my (debit? credit?) card.
