There is a free web interface (at http://www.hotmail.com/)
There is a free desktop email client (Windows Live Mail, which is sadly Windows only)
The key is that the messages are "synched" between the web interface and the client. So, if you delete messages, move messages to different folders, or even mark messages as read, the changes will be applied in both the web interface as well as the desktop client.
Sadly, the business email account I'm setting up does not use Hotmail. It uses POP for accessing the email (I believe the provider actually uses Google's mail servers rather than their own if that makes any difference).
Is there any way I can have this "synching" behavior with a standard POP email account?
* This post is not sponsored my Microsoft. I just happen to have been using my personal Hotmail email address for soon a decade and haven't gotten around to switching.
It seems that IMAP is just what I'm looking for:
http://www.kirupa.com/forum/showthread.php?369062-Keeping-POP-email-accounts-synched-between-web-and-desktop&p=2626258&viewfull=1#post2626258
