Make Outlook prompt for user identity on startup

Helpline Q&A Directory

My wife and I use Outlook Express identities to access our email accounts. If I don't remember to switch the identity when I use the program after her, the email I send appears to come from her. How can we ensure that Outlook Express will know which of us is using the program?

If you use Internet Explorer 5.0 (and thus Outlook Express 5.0), you can make the program ask you to select an identity every time Outlook Express loads after Windows boots. In Outlook Express, select File, Identities, Manage Identities. In the 'Start up using' field, select Ask Me and click Close.

Unfortunately, if you exit Outlook Express and then re-enter it, you won't be asked your identity. Outlook Express 5.5 also fails to give you this option. (Outlook Express versions before 5.0 didn't offer identities at all.) So make Outlook Express change its appearance when you change identities.

Since the program remembers the shape and size of its window for each identity, if one of you agrees to maximise the window to full screen, and the other agrees not to, you'll see the difference. Any change to the look of the program, including options from the View, Layout dialog box, should suffice.