How to use preferred alias when sending from Outlook 365 desktop

Question

How to use preferred alias when sending from Outlook 365 desktop

Anne Mc 0

I have a personal 365 account. I want to send as alias @ domain.co.uk rather than username @ domain.co.uk. Although I can click the arrow next to the From field and type in the address I want to use, it sends as:

"username @ domain.co.uk <alias @ domain.co.uk>"

How can I set it to send as:

"Firstname Lastname <alias @ domain.co.uk>"

All the info online about using aliases refers to Admin Centre but as I don't have a business account, I don't have access to Admin Centre. My email account is set in Outlook as:

"Firstname Lastname (alias @ domain.co.uk)"

but even when sending without changing the from field, it sends as:

"username @ domain.co.uk <username @ domain.co.uk>"

I can't find any options to change it. Why is this so difficult to achieve in Outlook? Apple Mail handles it quite simply.

N.B. I've had to put spaces in the examples because MS changed all the words before the @ signs to asterisks!!!!"

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Answer 1

Hi @Anne Mc

I understand the frustration. A Microsoft 365 Personal subscription does not provide the Exchange Admin Center or business mailbox controls, so the administrator instructions you found do not apply here.

Selecting an alias in the From field changes the sending address, but it does not create a separate display name for that alias. The name shown to recipients is taken from the account or mail provider’s sender information. New Outlook currently does not provide a setting to assign a different display name to each alias.

You can try changing the name on your Microsoft account profile, but that change applies to the account generally, not only to the alias. Also test sending from Outlook on the web. Outlook.com officially supports choosing a Microsoft account alias through Options > Show From, while the desktop app may handle aliases differently. Send email from a different address in Outlook.com

If domain.co.uk is hosted by another email provider, the sender display name may need to be changed with that provider instead. In that case, please let us know who hosts the mailbox and whether the account was added to Outlook as IMAP or as an Outlook.com account.

Hope this helps