Adding New Mail Profiles for the Microsoft 365 Outlook Desktop App
Mail Profiles Offer an Easy Way to Manage Users and Reset the Outlook Desktop App
Perhaps you have a new user on your workstation, or maybe your Outlook isn’t behaving as expected. Whatever the reason, you can reset the Outlook Desktop App while leaving the current user in tact by creating new Windows Outlook Mail Profiles. This guide will go through the steps of creating and using a new Windows Mail Profile for Outlook.
Before beginning, we recommend downloading and installing the latest version of Desktop Apps available through your Microsoft 365 subscription. To do so, log in to https://office.com and follow the Install Apps button. You can also run updates from within Outlook if you have installed it recently. Once you’ve gotten the latest updates, close the Outlook Desktop App before proceeding.
Download the Latest Microsoft 365 Desktop Apps
Note: You can also manage which devices your Desktop App installs are on by using the “Other install options” button and navigating to “View apps & devices.” This will allow you to see which devices you have your desktop apps installed on.
Accessing Outlook Mail Profiles
When you first set up the Outlook desktop app, Windows will use a default profile name “Outlook.”
In order to create a new one, we’ll need to open the “Mail Setup – Outlook” control panel setting. This can be accessed a few different ways, but the easiest way is to first access the Control Panel by searching for it from the Start button. In Control Panel search for “Mail” in the upper right hand and “Mail (Microsoft Outlook)” should be displayed.
Accessing the Windows Control Panel
Search for “Mail” in Control Panel
Click “Mail (Microsoft Outlook)” to launch the Mail Setup dialog.
The Windows “Mail Setup – Outlook” Settings
Creating and Using a New Outlook Mail Profile
Once you’ve accessed the “Mail Setup – Outlook” dialog, click “Show Profiles…” Windows automatically creates the default profile “Outlook” when you first set up the Outlook Desktop App. If we create a new profile, we will be able to reset Outlook and re-set it up from scratch.
Click “Add…” and give your new profile a name. In this case we named the new profile “Outlook – New,” it might also make sense to put a username here.
Create a New Outlook Profile to Reset the Desktop App
After naming the new profile, you will be given an opportunity to log in. If this is a Microsoft 365 account, just enter in your email address and password as you normally would. Click “Next >” to add the account. You can also just hit “Cancel” and log in when you launch the App, Windows will still create the new profile.
Once you have a new profile created, you can select what happens when you launch the Outlook Desktop App, either “Prompt for a profile to be used” or “Always use this profile” and select the desired profile from a drop down menu. We recommend using the prompt option if you are troubleshooting Outlook and then switching to Always use once you are happy with the account set up. You can also always revert back to the original “Outlook” profile if something goes wrong.
Now launch your Outlook Desktop App, choose your profile (if you select Prompt), and finish setting up the account as you normally would.
Select an Outlook Profile
Supporting documentation from Microsoft can be found Here.