How to: Add an email Alias to your Outlook.com account

How to: Add an email Alias to your Outlook.com account

There are several different kinds of aliases that you can create for an Outlook.com account. The easiest way by far is to use what I call for a lack of a better name an “on demand” alias. After that your best choice would be to do a proper alias using one of the default domains like @Live.com @Hotmail.com @Outlook.com. If you are using Outlook.com as the backend for your personal domain then you can also do an alias using your domain name but it won’t be as easy. Regardless, those are your three options for aliases:

1. OnDemand Aliases
2. Aliases on the Microsoft domains: Outlook.com, Hotmail.com and Live.com
3. Aliases on custom domains you own like: @CloudIngeniu.com, etc.

So with no further do here is a step by step guide on how to accomplish this:

I. OnDemand Aliases

As the name implies, OnDemand aliases are aliases that you can come up with anytime and they require no setup whatsoever. This makes them the most practical and easy. You can also use filtering and other features on them which allow you to better manage your inbox if used wisely. All you have to do is add a plus sign after your username to enable it. This works for both Outlook.com domains and custom domains. Take the following example:

Suppose your email address is: Invalid@CloudIngenium.com. As mentioned the alias consist of typing a plus sign after your username / email alias and then the unique text to identify that alias. Say you subscribe to Groupon you could do Invalid+Groupon@CloudIngenium.com or say your Amazon digests at Invalid+Amazon@Hotmail.com. You can do whatever text you want after the plus sign (like in a regular email address, it needs to be alphanumeric: you can’t have special symbols).

The big plus here is that you can come up with any alias and use it, you don’t need to set it up. And it works with any formal alias you might have. Say you have your primary email: primary@outlook.com and an alias: secondary@outlook.com. You could use secondary+facebook@outlook.com too!

II. Aliases on the Microsoft public email domains: Outlook.com, Hotmail.com and Live.com

To add an alias to your Outlook.com account you need to:

• Move the mouse cursor over Inbox in the left column in Windows Live, Hotmail our Outlook.com homepage.
• Click the gear that appears to the right of Inbox.
• Select Create a Hotmail alias from the different options that appear on screen.
• Type the desired alias under Email address:.
• Click Create an alias.

III. Aliases on your private domain: i.e. CloudIngenium.com

To add an alias on your own private domain things get a bit tricky as you cannot do it from the Outlook.com site (which I think should be a feature request). Fortunately someone was as kind as to share a tool that leverages the Outlook.com API in order to assign aliases using your own private domain. Simply go to: https://wlalias.com/ and proceed to download the tool. Instructions are on the site and are pretty straight forward. It is sort of like powershell just for this.