Articles in Category: Email Providers

The companies and services that provide you your email service – from free services to your ISP to other “emal service providers” as well.

An office setting with a person sitting at a desk, visibly frustrated. The desk has a computer displaying a 'forgot password' error on the screen. The person is a middle-aged East Asian man in business casual attire. He's holding his head in one hand, and there's a notepad, a cup of coffee, and a smartphone on the desk. The room has a window with a view of a city skyline, suggesting an urban office environment. The atmosphere is that of stress related to forgotten credentials, with natural light coming from the window.

How to Recover an Outlook.com Account Without the Recovery Phone or Email

If you don’t have access to your account recovery phone number or alternate email address, there is a process you can go through to regain access to your account — maybe.

What’s the Difference Between Outlook, Outlook, and Outlook.com?

Microsoft continues to confuse us with product names. I’ll clarify the difference between Outlook, Outlook, and Outlook.com, and help you decide which you want.

How to Delete Your Google Account Permanently

Deleting is permanent. There’s another option that’s less drastic, includes a safety net, and eventually achieves the same goal.

How Do I Free Space in Outlook.com Without Losing Emails?

To avoid running out of space in your Microsoft/Outlook.com account, you can archive email messages to your PC.

How Do I Use Two Google Accounts at the Same Time?

It’s possible to use more than one Google account at the same time, though it’s easy to lose track of which one you’re in.

How Do I Move Email to an External Hard Drive?

The Outlook.com/OneDrive space limitation has many people looking for ways to download and preserve emails offline.

How Do I View Full Email Headers in Gmail?

Like most email programs and interfaces, Gmail hides the administrative information or ‘headers’ in email messages. They’re still easy to view.

How Do I Transfer Hotmail or Outlook.com Contacts to Another Account?

It’s easy to transfer Outlook.com contacts to other accounts.

How Do I Delete Attachments in Outlook.com?

If you want to free up space in your Outlook.com email account by deleting attachments but not their corresponding messages, you’ll need to take extra steps.

Why is My Outlook.com Email Suddenly Full?

Microsoft made a confusing change to how storage is allocated between Outlook.com and OneDrive.

Recover Your Account Later by Setting Up a Microsoft Recovery Code Now

A recovery code created in advance can help you regain access to your Microsoft account if you get locked out.

What is Last Account Activity in Gmail?

Gmail makes your account activity available to you in case you’re concerned about unauthorized access.

What For-Pay Email Providers Do You Recommend?

People often use free email providers for critical data only to lose everything when a problem occurs. So what do you look for in a paid email provider?

Could the Microsoft Servers Be Infected?

It’s tempting to blame the mail service for account hacks and vulnerabilities, but in fact that’s rarely the case. Much more likely is that hackers gained access to individual accounts through more traditional means.

How Not to Get Locked Out of Your Microsoft Account While Traveling

I tried to get locked out of my Microsoft account while traveling. I couldn’t. Why? I’d prepared. You can too.

What Are “Less Secure Apps” and Why is My Gmail Not Working?

Google is increasing the security requirements for accessing your Gmail accounts. I’ll review what the change means and the options you have.

How Full Is My Hotmail Account?

Microsoft will show you how much space your Hotmail/Outlook.com/Microsoft account is using, if you know where to look.

How Do I Free Up Space in Gmail?

There are several ways to deal with an overflowing Google Drive.

How Do I Change My Microsoft Account Phone Number?

Mobile numbers are an important component of Hotmail and Outlook.com security. I’ll review how to change the mobile number and keep it up to date.

Which Email Service Should I Use?

You have many, many choices when it comes to email services. I’ll review what to look for and make a couple of recommendations.

How Do I Use and Clear Outlook.com Contacts and Auto-complete Suggestions?

Outlook.com tries to make entering email addresses quicker, easier, and less error-prone by offering a variety of suggestions when you compose email. I’ll look at how those interact and how you can control some of what happens.

How Do I Contact Outlook.com Customer Service?

People ask every day how they can reach someone at Microsoft to help with Hotmail and Outlook.com problems. There is help.

Will Microsoft Close My Hotmail Account If I Don’t Sign In?

You can lose your account, and everything in it, if you don’t sign in often enough. Here’s how often you need to, and other ways to protect yourself.

How Do I Get Rid of Gmail Tabs? How to Regain Control and Find the Email Gmail Might Be Hiding From You

Gmail introduced a tabbed interface to automatically categorize email messages. Since their categorization often misses the mark, let’s turn it off.

How Do I Correct My Microsoft Account (Outlook.com) Time Zone?

If the time on your Outlook.com messages is wrong by hours, you may need to correct the time zone in your Microsoft account profile.

How Do I Stop Email from Going to Junk in Outlook.com?

It’s frustrating when email previously marked as “not junk” continues to get sent to the Junk folder. It may be due to a hidden email address you don’t normally see. I’ll show you how to expose it and what to do with it.

How Do I Print an Email in Black Instead of Gray in Outlook.com?

Outlook.com defaults to showing dark gray text instead of black. There’s no setting to change it, but I’ll describe a couple of straws to grasp at.

What Are My Hotmail and Outlook.com Account Recovery Options?

Outlook.com, Hotmail, and Microsoft account compromise and loss happens. Here’s how to get your account back varies based on what happened to it.

Why Do I See Lots of Failed Login Attempts on My Account?

We are all under constant attack. I’ll show you how to look at your Outlook.com recent activity and review why it might be full of failed login attempts.

Are Free Email Services Worth It?

Free email services and accounts are convenient and ubiquitous, and can be used safely, if and only if you take responsibility for that safety.

Gmail’s Confidential Mode Isn’t

Gmail offers a “confidential mode”. It is and it isn’t; learn how it works before you use it.

What’s the Difference Between Hotmail.com, Msn.com, Live.com and Now Outlook.com?

Like many Microsoft products, Hotmail’s name has changed a time or two and caused a great deal of confusion. I’ll try to make sense of it all.

Enabling Google Two-Factor Authentication

Two-factor authentication is a powerful way to protect your account. We’ll enable two-factor and take an additional, critical, step to secure it.

Can I Still Get a Hotmail Email Address?

Surprisingly, you can still create a hotmail.com email address. I’ll show you how.

My ISP Went Under; How Do I Recover My Email and Email Address?

If your ISP goes out of business, typically you can no longer access data kept on their equipment. Prevention is really the only cure.

4 Alternatives for Windows Live Mail and Outlook.com

Outlook.com is dropping support for Windows Live Mail 2012. I’ll look at what that really means, and outline some options Microsoft failed to mention.

How Do I Close My Hotmail or Outlook.com Account?

“I want to close my Hotmail account” is a knee-jerk reaction to many account problems. It’s easy, and I’ll show you how, but it also may be pointless or even harmful.

I searched and found a Hotmail support number, but is it legit?

There is no Hotmail support number. If you find one in search results, it’s not Microsoft. Whether it’s legitimate is up for debate.

How Do I Route My Email through Gmail?

Gmail can be used to handle email for almost any email address. I’ll show you how to route your email through Gmail, and why it’s worth considering.

How Do Gmail Labels Relate to Folders?

Gmail labels are similar to folders, but with a couple of important differences if you also use a desktop email program to access Gmail.

Change Your Hotmail or Outlook.com Email Address With An Alias

Outlook.com has added the concept of email address aliases. They serve as a good solution when you want to change your email address.

How Do I Change My Gmail Password?

It’s not necessarily obvious where Google/Gmail hides the “Change Password” functionality. I’ll walk you through it.

How Do I Copy Email from Outlook to Gmail?

It’s easy to get email providers and email programs mixed up. So the first step in setting this up is to understand which does what.

Why Do I Always Have to Sign Out Other Sessions in Gmail?

Isolating other sessions in Gmail can become pretty complex. We’ll walk through a number of scenarios.

How can I get my lost Hotmail emails back?

The answer isn’t going to be too hopeful, though I do have a few small straws you can grasp at.

Why Can’t I Set Yahoo! as My Default Mail Program?

Web-based email services (such as Yahoo) were never designed to be a default Mail-to program, but there are a few ways to get around that.

How Do I Make a New Hotmail Account? Or Outlook.com Account?

Making a new Hotmail or Outlook.com account isn’t as obvious as many think. First, you need to make the option visible – by signing out.

What Are Outlook.com’s IMAP, POP3, and SMTP Settings?

Microsoft has enabled POP3, IMAP, and SMTP access to Outlook.com, and thus to Hotmail accounts. I’ll walk you through the settings.

What are Yahoo’s IMAP, POP3, and SMTP settings?

Yahoo! now supports accessing your Yahoo! Mail account using POP3 and IMAP on your desktop email program or other device.

How Do I Change My Hotmail or Outlook.com Password?

How to change your Hotmail or Outlook.com password isn’t always obvious, particularly when Microsoft keeps changing the interface. I’ll walk you through how to change your Hotmail password.