How to set up Gmail in Windows 10 / Windows 10

If you’re running Windows 10, you might be happy to know that there’s now a simple and elegant way to view your email, contacts, and Google calendar using the built-in storage apps instead of using Outlook.

Outlook is a great email client for corporate employees, but I’m not a big fan of it for my personal email. However, before Windows 10, I had no choice but to use Outlook or always have a tab open in Chrome for my email.

The new Mail, Calendar, and People apps can all be synced with Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google contacts. However, the best part for me is that the apps look very smooth and I really enjoy using them. In this article, I will show you how to quickly and easily sync your Google account with Windows 10.

Gmail Settings in Windows 10 Mail App

To get started, set up the Mail app first. The great thing about the three apps in Windows 10 is that they are all integrated. When you add your Google account to one app, it will automatically be added to two other apps as well. Plus, each app has links to other apps in the sidebar, so switching between apps is super easy.

To open the Mail app, just click Start and type Mail. The top result should be Mail – Trusted Microsoft Store App.

The Mail app is divided into three sections: on the left is the sidebar where you’ll see a list of your email accounts and folders, in the middle is where a short description of all the emails in that folder will appear, and The right pane will show the full personal email.

Click Account in the left sidebar and then click More account in the right panel appears. A pop-up dialog will appear where you can choose your email service provider.

You can add an Outlook.com account, an Exchange account, a Yahoo email, an iCloud email, or any other POP or IMAP enabled email account. In our case, we will choose Google. Go ahead and enter your Google login and click Allow to allow Windows to access your email, calendar, and contacts.

If all goes well, you will receive a success message stating that the account has been added to Windows.

All emails from your Gmail inbox will show up inside the Mail app. You’ll notice that by default, the Mail app only shows you Inbox folder and that’s it.

So what if you have a bunch of Gmail labels? Yes, go ahead and click Than link and it will upload all your remaining Gmail labels, which are basically folders in the Mail app. However, the panel disappears once you click it, so if you need access to some labels all the time, you should right-click and select Add to favorites. These labels will show up in the Inbox folder and can be accessed at all times.

By default, the Mail app only downloads emails from the previous 3 months. If you want to change that, you need to go into settings. If the left sidebar is not already expanded, you can expand it by clicking on the three horizontal lines in the top left. Then, click the gear icon at the bottom right of the sidebar.

On the right side, a sliding panel will appear where you can adjust various settings for the Mail app. At the top, you want to click Account Management.

Next, click on the email account you want to adjust the settings for. In our case, it’s for a Gmail account.

Click on the account and a dialog will appear where you can change the name of the email account, delete it, or change the mailbox sync settings.

Clicking that option will load the Gmail sync settings dialog. Here you can choose when to download new emails and whether to download all Internet messages and images.

Below that, you can change how often your contacts and calendar sync and how long you want emails to be downloaded. The only other option for the past 3 months is Anytimewill download all emails regardless of date.

Finally, you can turn off email, calendar, or contacts if you want. It’s worth noting that you can also adjust these settings the same way in the Calendar and Contacts apps.

Sync Google with the Calendar App and People

Now that you have the Mail app set up in Windows 10, all you have to do is open the Calendar and People apps to see your Google calendar and Google contacts.

By default, all calendars should be checked, but you expand to Gmail and manually select or deselect the calendars you want to see. Now open the People app and you will see it looks very similar to the other two apps. Microsoft did a great job making them all look and feel the same.

That’s all it takes to sync our email, contacts, and Google calendars with Windows 10. So far it’s been a pleasant experience, and hopefully Microsoft continues to update the apps to improve them. Enjoy!