Configuring preferences and options in Outlook.com
... who decided that light grey type is easier to read than black? Is there any way to change that color on my screen?
This is an old question which was never satisfactorily answered despite the markings on some of the posts. It still attracts attention, possibly because it's been marked as answered, so here's a different response:
This sort of problem is best tackled by making style adjustments in the browser, to override the styles dictated by the web page's designers. I only ever use Internet Explorer, and this is how I make the text in Outlook.com's message list both bigger and blacker without affecting anything else much.
1. Copy the text in this box and paste it into a new Notepad document:
.t_lnk a, .t_lnk a:link, .t_elnk, .t_qtc,.t_qtc:hover,.t_qtc:visited,.mlRd .t_estc, .t_qtci, .mlUnsel .t_cag.nc:hover
{font-size: 14px !important; color:#000 !important;}
.mlUnrd.t_sel div, .mlRd.t_sel div, .mlUnrd.t_sel span, .mlRd.t_sel span, .mlUnrd.t_sel a, .mlUnrd.t_sel .Fm a, .mlRd.t_sel a, .mlUnrd.t_sel .DtB a, .mlRd.t_sel .DtB a
{color: #FFF !important}
2. Click File > Save As. In the Save as type box, select All files (*.*), then in the File name box type
ol-black.css
3. Select a suitable place to save the file, e.g. in your Documents folder.
4. Open Internet Explorer and go to your inbox at http://mail.live.com
The message list will probably look something like this:

5. Click the Internet Explorer settings cog in the top right-hand corner of the window
(not the identical outlook.com one below it). Select Internet options.
6. Click the Accessibility button on the General tab.
7. Select Format documents using my style sheet and click Browse.
8. Navigate to the file you saved earlier, select it and click Open.
9. Click OK twice. With any luck, your message list will now look something like this:

The CSS file can be fine-tuned if necessary. Does this help any of you?