Add a Shortcut to Yahoo! Mail on your Desktop
February 22nd, 2008
(21 votes, average: 3.76 out of 5)
Loading ...Today, I thought I’d share a personal experience on how something that’s so second nature to me, is perceived so differently through the eyes of someone else. To encourage you to read this post, I’ve put a tip at the end.
Here’s the scenario: I was setting up a new Yahoo! Mail account for my mum the other day. I KNOW!! She doesn’t already use Yahoo! Mail?!?! Well the answer is no. In fact, she doesn’t really use the Internet at all, until now. My dad got her a new laptop for Christmas and she’s just getting around to using it now.
At the moment, she’s just going to use it for email, and maybe some Web surfing. She wants to be in touch with her book-group and another group she meets up with. So while setting up the account, it got me to thinking what’s the easiest way for my mum to logon to her new email account? And as I was saying, “Click this picture, also known as an icon 
(BTW – I like Vista for the option to have those huge icons), then go to bookmarks, then click on this one that’s called Yahoo Mail, and then login.” I was thinking there’s got to be easier way, and then I was thinking how do other people logon to their mail?
So I asked around the team, and what I’ve found a large percentage of users do… They open an Internet browser, and then search for Yahoo Mail, and then click the Yahoo Mail search result. I’m going to assume that it’s mostly Internet explorer for the browser and mostly some other search engine I’m not going to name ;). But then that’s probably what my mum would do too, whereas I would never think to do that. But since my mum doesn’t know what a URL is or what http:// stands for, it makes more sense to me now. I’ve been immersed in this stuff for so long now, what seems second nature to me is completely foreign to someone like my mum.
So the next time the next you’re trying to explain something to someone, think about whether or not my Mum would understand it.
So here’s the tip, which is my solution to the “easier way” from above and how my mum gets to her mail each day. I put a shortcut on her desktop that goes directly to Yahoo! Mail. Here’s one way that you can do it for your mum (although I know that there’s a number of ways to do it):
- All you need to do is click and drag this link – Login to Yahoo Mail – onto your mum’s desktop.
- Make sure her desktop is clutter free so that it’s easy to see the shortcut, and if you have Window’s Vista you can turn on those really huge icons, which my mum really likes.
- The shortcut icon you get may look like one of the two shortcuts above. I thought that it has to do with which browser you have set to be the default browser, but my tests have proved inconclusive.
Now this tip is not meant for my mum, it’s meant for people like me who want to help their friends and family get the most out of their Internet experience. But I promise, mum, I’ll get working on some tips just for you!!
Happy emailing!!
Andrew – Yahoo! Mail Team
Entry Filed under: classic mail tips, quick tips, yahoo mail tips
12 Comments Add your own
1. anna | February 25th, 2008 at 9:14 am
I cannot find anywhere the pop3 and smtp address to configure my mail client account - very unpleasant and annoying
ok I am searching further this info I remember was available very easily in the past now it seems to be a secret … I lost already 20 minutes …
—
Hi Anna,
Sorry to hear that you’re having troubles finding the POP settings for you mail client. There’s a lot of different mail clients out there, and you can find help on how to set up many of the most popular clients here: http://help.yahoo.com/l/uk/yahoo/mail/original/manage/manage-281222.html
Hope that helps,
Andrew - Yahoo! Mail Team
2. Yaw Frimpong | March 1st, 2008 at 7:51 am
How do i prevent junk mail from getting into my mail box?
3. Annie | March 1st, 2008 at 11:31 am
Hi,
Yes this is the easiest option to copy and paste the shortcut to your desktop - now if you are more pedantic like me you can change the icon to something that you like and makes life easier to spot - I must say that after experiencing so much trouble with aol software I switched to yahoo mail and I can honestly say that I have never looked back.
4. Daniel | March 6th, 2008 at 11:18 am
The problem with this link is that it always brings you to the sign in page, even if you are already signed in.
The link I usually use is: https://mail.yahoo.com, which does not pose the above problem. This isn’t perfect either though as your browser presents you with a ‘certificate domain mismatch’ warning message which requires you to accept the certificate (the problem here is that the certificate the page uses is issued by login.yahoo.com, not mail.yahoo.com).
5. Steve | March 7th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
I simply have Yahoo! Mail set as my home page and have an icon/link to Firefox in my desktop Quick Launch bar. Clicking on that takes me straight there and I only sign in when my ’signed-in’ period expires (every 2 weeks).
As Firefox allows users to set more than one tab/web page as home, I also have another start page open at the same time. Job done!
6. Georgia | March 12th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Well I am very angry with Anna coz it is so not true!!!
7. King Dosser | March 12th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
I simply created a new shortcut on my desktop. I then logged into Yahoo mail and copied the link into the new shortcut.
When i click on the new shortcut it takes me direct to my e-mail if i’m logged in, or to the log in page if i’m not.
You can also drag and drop this shorcut onto your toolbar (next to your start menu button) and after a few connections the icon will change to the red Y that we all recognize as Yahoo…. One clickand i’m in!!!
Hope this helps someone.
8. Mary Gould | March 19th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Dear Andrew,
I hope your Mum has better success with your shortcuts than I - both mine open Adobe reader.
I’d love to know how Steve manages to stay signed in for the fortnight - I’ve checked the box but always have to sign in every day, sometimes 2 or three times.
9. tarzan | March 31st, 2008 at 7:55 am
to Mary Gould,
you need to preserve the cookies in browser.
If the browser delete the cookies on exit then you need to
login again.
10. Jeanie | April 2nd, 2008 at 6:32 pm
Hi Andrew, Thank you so much for your help, i now have yahoo on my desktop, and cant believe how easy it was to do, i did it on the second attemt, thats good for me, like your mum i am a novice, bit i am having so fun playing with my laptop,i do get in a muddle sometimes but i manage to get out.there are a lot of terms i dont understand,like what are cookies?and what does uri stand for?i like my cookies with choc chips in them,am sure as time goes on i will learn more and more and this 58yr old brain will keep me feeling and looking like a 40yr.onceagain thank y
11. JOHN SPARE | April 2nd, 2008 at 8:01 pm
I am repeatedly annoyed and upset at being unable to access yahoo mail at any point in time, despite using every option claimed to be available, without signing in each and every time ,also having signed the 2 week access agreement and dragging down the icon to desk top for short cut access,-the time spent annoys me intensly and drives me crazy ,it is enough to make a parson swear.
12. A K Gupta | June 3rd, 2008 at 5:49 am
The sent Mail is not saved in the sent mail box.
Plx Clarify..
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