How do I send email from Windows?

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How do I send email from Windows?

Julie Eigen wanted to know how to send mail in Windows – I assume she meant sending an email from a computer running the Windows operating system. Since this is a beginner’s question, I’ll make this as simple as possible for a novice to understand.

Do you use an email account provided by free services such as Gmail, Hotmail (now Outlook.com), Yahoo!Mail and others?

Email accounts, free or otherwise, provided by online services such as Gmail, Yahoo!Mail, Windows Live Hotmail, Rediffmail etc. are known as webmail accounts. On webmail accounts, your emails are stored on another computer (called a server) and not your own. Which means whenever you need to check your emails, you need to connect to this other computer.

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Here are some services that offer free online email accounts.

The program required for this task is the web browser software. You already have one on your Windows computer – Internet Explorer web browser. You can also install another from the list of web browsers on this web site. A web browser lets you “browse” the Internet and perform various other tasks such as checking your email from online email service providers like those mentioned above. Webmail accounts can be accessed from any machine as long as it has an Internet connection and a web browser and so you can check your email even when you are away from your computer.

To check your webmail account and send emails from Windows, launch the web browser program and type in the web site address for your email provider. After entering the username and password (your account login details) you will arrive at your email address inbox and take it from there.

Using a program to send, receive and manage email messages and multiple accounts

An email program also referred to as an email client, lets you send, receive and manage email messages. There are several such programs, free and paid, and your choice is limited to only the operating system your computer runs. Email clients store emails on your computer, which means, you can manage them at your convenience. However, it also means that if you are away from your computer and have been deleting emails from your email server, you would not be able to check out the older messages. To know more, read what is an email program or an email client.

I suggest using Outlook Express if you are on Windows 98 or Windows XP and Window Live Mail, if you are running Windows XP or Windows Vista. By the way, Windows Vista has a pre-installed email client called Windows Mail; you can use that or better still go for the latest Windows Live Mail. You can find lots of help and step by step instructions on how to set up your email account on these programs on this web site.

Some webmail services such as Google’s Gmail and Hotmail allow you to configure your email address on Windows Live Mail email client.

Is the email address provided by your office?

If your email address has been provided by your office, you can probably set it up on your computer on an email program such as Outlook Express or Windows Live Mail. Through these programs you would be able to send emails from Windows without problems. Though ample help and step by step instructions are available on this web site for popular Windows email software, please do ask your office network administrator for details.

Email address from an Internet Service Provider

Your Internet Service Provider (I.S.P.) would probably have provided you with an email address. Such accounts can be accessed with the web browser and can also be configured and setup on email clients.