How do I set up Outlook Express and add a new email account?

To send and receive emails using Outlook Express, we first need to set up an email account. This is accomplished by providing certain details to the software so that it can connect to the email server (the computer which stores the email), log in at the designated account and download/send all messages. You thus, need to create an account in Outlook Express to download and send emails.

This tutorial will lead you through the steps of creating new email accounts in Outlook Express and using these accounts to send and receive emails. The tutorial has been written using Outlook Express version 6.

IMPORTANT: You need to have an email account to use Outlook Express. If you don’t refer the following links for step by step instructions and screenshots on how to create a new email account – please choose the email service you want.

• Get an email address – How to
• Create your own email address
• Creating a email address on your domain name or web site
• Free Gmail account
• Get a Gmail address
• Create a Gmail email address
• Make Hotmail email account
• Create Hotmail account

Setting up new email accounts in Outlook Express – 10 Steps

Without further ado, let us look at the steps which we need to follow for setting up an email account in Outlook Express.
Note: When you open Outlook Express for the first time, you might be asked if you want to set it as a default email client on your system. Make sure you answer in the affirmative.

1. Start Outlook Express. Click on Tools in the menu bar and then go to Accounts
   
2. This brings up the Internet Accounts pop-up window. Click on the Mail tab, to bring it to the front if it is not already so. If you are starting Outlook Express for the first time, there would not be any email accounts listed on this window.
   
3. To add a new mail account, click on the Add button and then on Mail as shown in the image below.
   
4. This brings up the Internet Connection Wizard pop-up window. Enter your name in the Display Name field and click on the Next button.
   
5. The wizard now asks for your email address. Enter the full email address and click on the Next button.
   
6. In the next window, you need to feed in three important bits of information – the incoming and outgoing email servers and the type of the incoming email server.
   It is likely that the incoming email server is POP3. The incoming and outgoing email servers can be yourdomain.com, mail.yourdomain.com or any other value depending on how the email server has been configured.
   If you are a beginner, you might not know what the incoming and outgoing servers mean. It is not important at this stage to know the meaning; you simply need to know their values. Call up your I.S.P. and ask them to provide the information.
   I know that the email accounts at my domain www.BiotechDesk.com are all POP3. Additionally, the incoming and outgoing email servers are the same – biotechdesk.com.
   
7. The last information that you need to enter to complete the setup of the new account is the username and password for that email account. These login details would have been given to you by your ISP or you would have set these online using a control panel.
   After completing the fields for Account Name and Password, click on the Next button.
   
8. In the following window, click on the Finish button to complete the process of setting up a new email account in Outlook Express.
   
9. You will now see the new email account has been added to the Accounts list. The account is referred by its server name.
   
10. To compose a new email click on the Create Mail button or click on Messages – New Message. This opens a blank email for you. Enter the senders email address, subject and the matter.
    When you have composed your email, click on the File – Send Message. The email will be sent and a copy stored in the Sent Items folder.

You can create several email accounts in Outlook Express. So if you have 6 email accounts on your web site, you can set up all these.

As I mentioned in point #9 (above), Outlook Express will refer to an email account by its server name. So if you have several email accounts on your domain, they would be referred to as yourdomain.com(1), yourdomain.com(2) etc. (or something similar). To make this more user friendly, Outlook Express gives you the option of changing these values.

Open the Internet Accounts pop-up once again by clicking on Tools and then Accounts. Make sure the Mail tab is in the front. Double-click on the account name. This brings up the Properties window of that account. Enter any descriptive name in the first field, as shown in the image below.