How to set up an email signature in the built-in Mail app for Windows 10

How to set up an email signature in the built-in Mail app for Windows 10

Email Signatures in windows 10 Mail app

Windows 10 Mail app is a lightweight email client which comes with Windows 10. While it’s not nearly as advanced or popular as Outlook, or Thunderbird, it gets its job done and has a fair share of users. Up until recently, it wasn’t possible to format email signatures in the Mail app the way you’d like. Fortunately, now you can add a great looking HTML email signature to your email instead of using the default “Sent from Mail for Windows 10”, or a sad, plain text signature.

Design a good HTML email signature

One of the tricks to having email signatures which look the same (or at least very similar) across email clients is using tables and in-line HTML styles. Unfortunately, Windows 10 Mail app only has a basic email signature editor which doesn’t let you do much formatting. If you want your signature to include your name, basic contact info and a logo, simply pasted in a single column, then there’s no need to worry. However, if apart from contact details, you’d like to add social media buttons and format the whole thing in a pleasant way, you will need to design your email signature in another editor and then paste it to the Mail app for Windows 10.

The easiest way to create a good-looking email signature is to use our free email signature generator or download one of our free email signature templates. If you are using the generator, just leave the default email platform (Outlook) and follow the guidelines in the tool to make your own HTML email signature. When you apply your signature, and copy the signature to clipboard, you can start adding it to Windows 10 Mail app.

If you want to roll up your sleeves and create an HTML email signature from scratch, here are some articles which can help you get this done:

Once you have your HTML email signature ready and copied to clipboard, it’s time to set it up in the Mail app.

Add an HTML email signature to Windows 10 Mail app

The process is pretty straight-forward. Mind that this email client doesn’t allow you to use multiple email signatures or different signatures for replies and forwarded messages.

I’m using Windows 10 Mail Version 16005.12827.20560.0 configured with a Microsoft 365 account. Although the Inbox looks a bit differently for Gmail and Outlook.com accounts configured in Windows 10 Mail app, I’ve tested it and email signatures are configured exactly the same for both email services.

  1. First, you need to launch your Windows 10 Mail app:
Windows 10 Mail app - main window
  1. Go to Settings (the ⚙ icon at the bottom) and choose Signature from the menu on the right side of the window:
Signature settings in Windows 10 Mail app
  1. This opens the signature editor in Windows 10 Mail app. Make sure that the Use an email signature option is On and that the drop-down points to the right email account, if you have more than one configured. The editor has some basic formatting options available and the default “Sent from Mail for Windows 10” signature is already set up. Delete that text and paste your email signature (Ctrl+A, followed by Ctrl+V should to the trick, provided you have copied the signature to the clipboard).
Windows 10 Mail app Signature editor
  1. Once your signature is in the editor, you can make some adjustments. Check for typos, see if links work correctly. As you can see below, your signature might not fit entirely into the tiny editor pane, so let’s check how it looks in an actual email.
Paste email signature to your Windows 10 Mail editor
  1. When you create a new email (or reply or forward an existing one) the signature will be there just the way you wanted it to be:
Windows 10 Mail app new email with signature

After you set up your signature in the Mail app in Windows 10 (or any other email client), it’s best to send an email with your signature to yourself first to see if your images look well and if there are no formatting issues.

How to handle email signatures company-wide

Setting up an email signature for a single email client is not that hard, especially when you use a well-crafted template as your starting point. The thing is different when you think about email signatures on a company level. Companies that care about their brand identity and visual identity need to unify their email signatures. This will allow them to build their brand with one of the most commonly used communication channels – emails.

How difficult is it to deploy email signatures in a company

While manual deployment of unified email signatures is possible, it’s not easy to set up or maintain. Especially when employees can use various email clients and devices for email communication.

That’s why we came up with tools for email signature management which make designing and deploying email signatures for the whole company a child’s play, saving you a lot of time and resources.

See also:

11 thoughts on “How to set up an email signature in the built-in Mail app for Windows 10

  1. Matt

    Windows 11 just opens a small side view box, is there a way to work around this? I cannot add my full signature, only text it seems.

    Reply
  2. Charlie

    Just changed my PC after the last one died. The signature editor has changed and only plain text with no logos can be entered. Very disappointed!

    Reply
  3. Maksim

    Looks like they removed from the new version a possibility to change font, add picture or link. Just plain text from now on.

    Reply
    1. Jacek Szafran

      What is the version of your Windows Mail app? I have 16005.14326.20970.0 and I can still change font, add picture, etc.

      Reply
  4. ashley

    My app is not opening the Signature editor. It just has a small box to create a signature but you can’t change font at all…

    Reply
  5. Peter

    It seems the rich text editor has been replaced by a textbox in the Windows 11 version of the mail app. So no more HTML signature in that version. Does anyone know the location on disk where the signature is stored? Perhaps the file is still editable.

    Reply
  6. Sulette Versteegh

    I have more than one account listed and it doesn’t give me the option to change the signature on the different accounts. It uses the same signature for all the accounts. How can I change that?

    Reply
    1. Kamil Glaser Post author

      Do you have “Apply to all accounts” checked in? It will cause the signature to default to all accounts. Otherwise, change the active account and try setting up another email signature.

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *