Outlook Express Identity Guide

Outlook Express can allow separate email boxes for multiple email addresses by the use of Identities. An identity allows users to log into Outlook Express, thereby gaining access to their own separate Inbox, Sent-Mail folder, Contacts list, etc. Configuring Outlook Express to support identities is very easy. Just open Outlook Express and click on File, Identities, and Manage Identities. That brings you to a window similar to this:

The Main Identity is the one that loads when Outlook Express starts. Add an identity by clicking on the New button. You should see a dialog box like the one below:

Type the name of the person whose identity you wish to setup, then click on OK. Note that if you want to password-protect your identities, you will need to place a check in the Require a password checkbox. Doing so will bring up another window prompting you to enter a password for this identity. Type in your desired password to this account in the appropriate boxes, then click the OK button. If you put a password on the account, you will need to enter that password each time you switch to the identity, edit the identity information, or remove the identity.

After entering your password, you should be back at the New Identity dialog box. Click on the OK button the save your identity, and answer No when prompted to switch identities.

This places you back at the Manage Identities dialog box where you can add any other desired identities (just repeat the steps above), or click Close and exit back to Outlook Express.

Now that your identities are created, you'll need to edit the mail accounts in each identity to ensure that each identity contains only the email accounts you want them to access. Click on File, then Switch Identities and choose which identity you want to work with (for this example, we'll change to the Main Identity with multiple mail accounts). Outlook Express will close temporarily, then reopen using the new identity. Now click on Tools, then Accounts. You should see a window open similar to the following:

Notice that the accounts in our Main Identity has two email accounts. Since we've just created two identities for those accounts, we need to remove the extra account information from the Main Identity. Highlight the first account (pop.usa2net.net) and click on the Properties button.

Look at the E-mail address line under User Information. Is this the address you would like to use with the Main Identity? If not, click the ok button to close the Properties window. This takes you back to the Internet Accounts window. Highlight the pop.usa2net.net account in the listing, then click on the Remove button. This deletes the account information from the Main Identity.

Repeat these steps for any other accounts, making sure to remove only the account information that you don't want to remain in your Main Identity. Once the Main Identity is configured how you would like it, we'll need to switch to the other identities and configure their email accounts as well. Click here to learn how to add an email address to your newly-created identity (make sure to follow these steps for all your identities!).