How to Manage Aliases on Your Microsoft Account?

Microsoft allows you to change the way you log in and appear to recipients by adding aliases to your Microsoft account. An alias works as a nickname for your account which can be anything from email address, phone number to Skype name. It has access to same inbox, account settings, and contact list just like the primary alias. Also, you can log into your account using the alias with the same password which you use for your primary alias.

Advantages of Using Aliases on your Account

  • You get to change your names, set up a personal business without requiring to create a new email address with your company name.
  • You want to have a new email address but don’t want to lose all your data and settings.
  • You get the flexibility of having multiple aliases which share the same inbox and subscriptions.
  • You get to create an alias which can’t be used to log into your account which allows you to give it to companies and other people without letting them have access to your info.

NOTE:

  • You will not be able to add an alias which is already associated with any other Microsoft account. You cannot use Aliases to share information between two Microsoft accounts. The feature to link Microsoft was withdrawn in 2013.
  • You cannot add @live.com, @outlook.com, @hotmail.com, and @msn.com addresses as aliases.
  • By default, Microsoft makes your email address or phone number which you use to sign up as your primary alias. Your primary alias is what gets displayed as the main account name when you see your profile information. You can change this anytime.
  • Any other aliases added by you in your account are considered as the secondary aliases. You can always manage as which secondary alias to use for signing into your Microsoft account.
  • You can create up to 10 aliases on your Microsoft account at any given time.

To know how to add or remove an email alias in your Outlook account, follow the steps provided below.

Steps to Add Alias to Your Microsoft Account

  • Log into your Microsoft account via link – Click here.
  • Select Your info option and click on the option – Manage how you sign in to Microsoft.
  • Then, select Add email option or Add phone number option.
  • After that, follow the on-screen instructions to create and verify your new alias.
  • If you select Add email option, you get to use an email address which you already have, or you can create a new Outlook email address if you prefer.

Steps to Make an Alias Primary

The primary alias of your Microsoft account is displayed on your devices such as Surface, Xbox, and Windows Phone and this is the email address from which the OneDrive sends photos or documents. You can change your primary alias up to two times in a week. Moreover, you can add your work or school email address as an alias, however, it can’t be set as primary alias.

  • Log into the Microsoft account via link – Click here
  • Next, select Your info and then Manage how you sign in to Microsoft.
  • Then, choose Make primary option next to the alias which you wish to set as primary alias.

Steps to Remove an Alias from your Account

  • Sign into your Microsoft account via link – Click here
  • Go to the option Your Info > Manage how you sign in to Microsoft.
  • After that, click on the Remove option next to the alias which you want to remove from your account.

If you wish to remove an email address completely, you will need to close the account which means you will lose access to your inbox.

NOTES:

  • When you remove an email address from a non-Microsoft domain such as @yahoo.com, it becomes available right away to be added as an alias for another Microsoft account.
  • Once you remove an email address from @outlook.com, you can re-create it as a new account or alias after 30 days.
  • Email address from other Microsoft domains such as @msn.com, @hotmail.com, or @live.com are not allowed to be added again as an alias to any Microsoft account once they are deleted.

Steps to Manage Which Aliases Can Be Used for Sign-in

By default, Microsoft can sign in with any of your aliases, but if you want to select any particular alias (secondary alias), you can configure it easily. This comes handy when you are not sure about the authenticity. You can give them an email address which can’t be used for signing into your account. This prevents you from not worrying about anyone intruding into your account.

  • Log into your Microsoft account via link – Follow this link
  • Go to option Your info > Manage how you sign in to Microsoft.
  • Next, select Change sign-in preferences.
  • After that, de-select the box next to any aliases which you don’t want to use to log in.

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