Accounts Used by Other Apps (23H2)

In addition to letting you sign in to your PC with Microsoft accounts, work or school accounts, and local accounts, Windows 11 also lets you configure other online accounts within a sign-in account that can be used by other apps. These can be apps that ship with Windows 11 or third-party apps you install from the Microsoft Store.

Previously, Windows 11 supported two types of online accounts that could be used by apps: Those that provided email, calendar, and contacts data, and those that were used by other apps. But thanks to a single change in Windows 11 version 23H2--the addition of a new Outlook (new) app that replaces the Mail, Calendar, and People apps--you only need to worry about the second of those online account types because you configure email, calendar, and contacts accounts in Outlook (new), not in Windows 11.

Despite this, Windows 11 confusingly still includes an interface for adding and configure email, calendar, and contacts accounts alongside the interface for adding and configure app accounts. You can see this by opening the Settings app and navigating to Accounts > Email & accounts.

As you can see, there are two main sections to this Settings page, "Accounts used by email, calendar, and contacts," and "Accounts used by other apps."

You can safely ignore "Accounts used by email, calendar, and contacts." While it is still possible to add online accounts in that interface, Outlook (new) will not automatically use any of them, nor will it respect the configuration changes you might make there. Instead, you should add and configure email, calendar, and contacts accounts directly in the Outlook (new) app.

Where did it go?
In older versions of Windows 11, you used the "Accounts used by email, calendar, and contacts" interface in Settings to add and configure online accounts for use in the Mail, Calendar, and People apps. But with Windows 11 version 23H2, Microsoft has deprecated those apps and replaced them with the all-in-one Outlook (new) app. And not only will it will soon remove Mail, Calendar, and People from Windows 11 soon, but Microsoft will also prevent users from downloading these apps from the Microsoft Store or using them in Windows 11.

Oddly, you can still add online accounts using "Accounts used by email, calendar, and contacts," and you can configure each to your heart's content. But unlike Mail, Calendar, and People, the Outlook (new) app ignores the accounts you add and any configuration changes you make there.

Because of this change, we will soon remove the Mail and Calendar chapters from this book so that we can focus on Outlook (new) instead. If you still use Mail, Calendar, and People, we recommend that you evaluate Outlook (new) and switch to that app or another email solution as soon as possible.

You can learn more about the Outlook (new) app in the Outlook (New) chapter.
Add and configure an account that can be used by Microsoft Store apps
When you sign in to Windows 11 ...