Windows 10: The Missing Manual, 2nd Edition

Chapter 10. Mail

Mail, which is Windows 10’s built-in email program, is easy to use, beautiful, and—especially if you have a touchscreen—offers a fast, fluid way to work. Mail even syncs with your other Windows 10 machines. Set up your accounts once, and find them magically waiting for you on any other phones, tablets, or PCs you may pick up. Finally, it’s handy that Mail’s messages notify you by appearing in the Windows 10 Action Center (“The Action Center”).

Note:

The Mail app is simple to use, but that’s another way of saying it’s fairly rudimentary.

There are plenty of alternative mail programs, though—including Microsoft’s own Windows Live Mail, which came with Windows 8 but not with Windows 10. It’s a desktop program (rather than a Microsoft Store app), so it’s far more complete. It’s a free download, it works great in Windows 10, and you can find it on this book’s “Missing CD” page at www.missingmanuals.com. In fact, there’s a free PDF appendix to this book that describes it, on the same “Missing CD”: “Windows Live Mail.”

Setting Up

The first time you fire up Mail—or any email program, actually—your first job is to enter the details of your email account. When you open Mail for the first time, you’re offered one button: “Add account.”

On the next screen, you’ll see that Mail comes ready to accommodate all kinds of popular email services (Figure 10-1): Gmail, Yahoo, Apple’s iCloud, Outlook.com (any of Microsoft’s free web-based email services, including Hotmail, Live.com ...