Linked Accounts Being Eliminated from Outlook

Starting in late July, Microsoft will be eliminating the "linked accounts" feature from Outlook.com.  While this feature has been used for many reasons, particularly where you don't want to provide your primary email address, security is the primary reason Microsoft is giving for this change.

According to the announcement by Eric Doerr in the Outlook Blog, it has been increasingly found that linked accounts are less secure than using aliases, particularly because it is possible to sign in to Outlook.com on the web and then switch to any other linked account without entering a password.

Options

With the elimination of linked accounts, the remaining options currently available are to use mail forwarding from the previously linked account or create an alias. 

Microsoft is reportedly working on setting up the ability to move an email address and the accompanying email from one account to another.

Important Notes: 

1. Mail Forwarding:  You must sign in to your forwarded account at least once every 365 days.  If you don't, the system will close the account.
2. Reply to Forwarded Mail:  In order to reply directly to email forwarded to your primary account, it is necessary to configure Outlook.com to send email on behalf of a secondary email account.
3. Aliases:  There is a limit of up to ten new aliases per year and an overall maximum of ten aliases.  Deleting an alias removes it from the count but not the ten/year limit. )   

Information on how to create an Outlook.com alias and set up mail forwarding is available from Microsoft in the help documents linked below.

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References

• Outlook Blog: An update to linked accounts
• Add an Outlook.com alias to your account
• Set up your Gmail, Yahoo! Plus, or Microsoft email accounts in Outlook.com

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