Send messages from old email identities

The first step is to obtain some settings from your new ISP. If the new email account is already set up, launch Windows Mail or Outlook Express, open the Tools menu and choose Accounts to open the Internet Accounts dialogue box. Select the new email account and click Properties. Switch to the Server tab and make a note of the following entries: Outgoing mail (SMTP), E-mail username (it’s under Account Name in Outlook Express) and Password. Click OK.

If the email address hasn’t been set up, visit your ISP’s website. Browse its Help or Support pages for instructions on setting up email, where the settings you need should be listed. If you’ve not yet configured your new email address, now is the time to do so – the old account might stop working at any time if your previous ISP decides to delete it. Once done, select the new account from the aforementioned Internet Accounts dialogue box and click ‘Set as Default’ so all new messages are sent through this account.

Once the required information has been gathered, configure the old mail account. Select Accounts from the Tools menu as before. This time, select your old email account and choose Properties. Switch to the Servers tab and change the Outgoing mail (SMTP) entry to match that of your new email account. Tick ‘My server requires authentication’ and click Settings. Select ‘Log on using’, then fill in the E-mail username or Account Name field followed by the password of your new account. Click OK, switch to the General tab and type your new email address into the ‘Reply address’ box and click OK.

The old email account should now be able to send mail, while any replies to those messages will be sent to your new email address. We suggest creating a signature to inform people of the change – this will appear at the bottom of all messages you send. Open the Tools menu and select Options. Switch to the Signatures tab and click New. Type the message informing people of the change into the Text box. Tick ‘Add signatures to all outgoing messages’ and untick ‘Don’t add signatures to Replies and Forwards’. Click Advanced, tick both old and new accounts, and click OK twice.

Alternatively, remind people by attaching your contact details to a message in the form of an electronic business card, also called a vCard. Open the Tools menu and select Windows Contacts (Address Book in Outlook Express). If your name is present, double-click it to add your new email address; otherwise, click New in Outlook Express or right-click the Contacts window, select New and choose Contact in Vista. Fill in as little or as much detail as you like, but make sure your name and email address is included. Once done, click OK and close the Address Book or Contacts folder.

Open the Tools menu, select Options and switch to the Compose tab. Tick the Mail box under Business Cards and select your entry from the dropdown menu. Remove the tick from the Mail box and click OK. Click Create Message, open the Insert menu and choose My Business Card. Type ‘Change of contact details’ or something similarly informative into the Subject box, followed by a short message inviting the recipient to double-click the envelope icon accompanying the message, choosing Open when prompted to open the vCard in their address book. Finish by selecting who to send the message to and then click Send.