How to change Microsoft email address | Q&A with Patrick Marshall

Q: I have an Office 365 Family subscription. The email account associated with this Microsoft account, including Office and OneDrive, is an old Hotmail account that has long become inundated with spam. I recently created a new Outlook ad-free email account for $20 per year. I don’t intend to use this new one as my primary email account, but I want to associate it with my Microsoft account. How can I do so without risking losing the stored data?

— Darrel Weiss, Bellingham

A: The process is more complicated than needed, but you can change the email addresses attached to your Microsoft account.

To start, go to account.microsoft.com/account and log into your Microsoft account. Next, in the upper right corner click on the user avatar and select “My profile.” Scroll down to “Account Info” and to the right of that click on “Edit account info.” You’ll finally reach a screen where you can add or remove email addresses attached to the account and you can designate which one you want as the primary email address.

Q: My computer has been hacked, and I wanted to know if you have heard of Garrisons, a company I paid hundreds of dollars to install a firewall. The strange thing about the company is that it doesn’t have any online footprint and only takes cash. I am suspicious, but all is working now.

— Larry Eagle

A: I know of a cybersecurity company called Garrison but I can’t vouch it is the same one you hired. Garrison doesn’t offer its products for sale online, but you can contact it at garrison.com. That said, yes, I’d be skeptical of a company that only takes cash. In fact, I would decline its services.

Under these circumstances, I’d keep a close eye on any sensitive accounts that might be accessed through that computer. If there’s no way for you to confirm the legitimacy of the people you hired, I’d be inclined to retire that computer or at least not use it to access the internet.

Note: After last week’s column on the issues with Hewlett-Packard subscription ink cartridges, I received several emails from readers who said their HP ink cartridges were disabled before the end of their subscriptions. One reader said the printer itself was disabled and wouldn’t work after installing separately purchased cartridges. Although an HP spokesperson denied this, I urge HP to consider that subscribers have been confused about how the subscription ink service works and be clear about the service.