So that my wife’s email is not buried in my inbox I created a separate “additional mailbox” with our ISP and a separate identity in Outlook Express. However, all email sent to her email address still appears in my inbox. How can I fix this problem? The computer is running Windows XP.

There could be a few issues at hand in this situation, so we will need to discuss the setup of your email account and Outlook Express as it is likely that something has gone awry with these steps. In the first instance, let’s discuss the implications of setting up a separate email account for your wife through the ISP. There are several types of additional email accounts which ISPs provide. This could either be an email forwarding address or a full email account. In the case of an email forwarding account, this is simply a new email address which is linked to your existing email account. For example, if your email address is gilbert@myisp.com.au and an email forwarder is setup as gilbertswife@myisp.com.au then all email sent to this new email address (gilbertswife@myisp.com.au) will simply be forwarded to your email address (gilbert@myisp.com.au). As you can see, in this situation the new email address is simply a redirection. As such, any email sent to the new address will be redirected to your existing email account and get mixed-up with email sent to your email address. There are ways around this issue, such as using filters or message rules in Outlook Express to move emails which are addressed to the secondary email address. For example, you could setup a message rule in Outlook Express to move any emails address to gilbertswife@myisp.com.au to a specific folder which you have created in Outlook Express. You can configure message rules by going to the “Tools” menu > “Message Rules” > “Mail”.

The second type of additional email accounts which ISPs may provide are a completely separate email account. This is not just a new email address, but a completely separate email account. This means that you need to input the new account details (such as username, password, and mail server) into your email client (such as Outlook Express) so that emails can be downloaded from this account. Since you say that your ISP has setup an “additional mailbox” I assume that your ISP has setup a completely new email account, so this would be the scenario which you have encountered. We can now move onto the discussion about Outlook Express identities and how they link with mailboxes.

When you setup a new identity in Outlook Express this is almost a new configuration (for lack of a better word) of Outlook Express. A completely separate mail store is used for emails and all account details are separate as well. This allows you to support several different email accounts in the one installation of Outlook Express. The same effect can be achieved by setting up a new user profile in Windows XP, but having the ability to create multiple profiles in Outlook Express makes it easy to support several different email accounts within one user in Windows XP.

In any case, now that we have an understanding of the mechanics of additional email accounts and how Outlook Express identities work we will address the issue that you are encountering. To start, should your ISP have setup an email forwarder then you will not be able to easily use multiple identities in Outlook Express as all the email comes through the one main email account. In this situation, the best solution will be to use message filters to move emails addressed to the secondary email address into a different folder. The overview of how this can be done has been covered previously in the column. However, if you are using multiple email accounts then you certainly should be able to use the multiple identities. The most likely cause of all email going into your identity, rather than having the secondary email address going into the other Outlook Express identity, is because both email accounts have been setup under your identity, rather than the second Outlook Express identity. To fix this issue, open your identity in Outlook Express then go to the “Tools” menu > “Accounts”. In the window that appears it is likely that you will see both email accounts listed. Remove your wife’s email account from the accounts listing in your identity and click OK. Then, switch to the other Outlook Express identity and go to the “Tools” menu > “Accounts” and setup the secondary email account in this identity. You should now be able to receive email in that identity and it will remain separate, rather than being mixed-up with email in your identity.