Setting up an account from your computer

To create an email account, you need to go to the email provider’s website. From Google’s home page (https://www.google.co.uk/ [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] ), click on the blue ‘Sign in’ button in the top right corner. Select ‘Create account’. This takes you to the page shown below.

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A screenshot of the ‘Create your Google Account’ page. There are boxes to type your first and last names into. Beneath them, there is a box for a username, partially filled with ‘@gmail.com’ and a note that letters, numbers and periods can be used. ‘Use my current email address instead’ is written in blue under this note. There is an empty box for a password, another beside it to confirm that password and an eye icon with a line through it. Beneath the ‘Password’ and ‘Confirm’ boxes, there is the note, ‘Use 8 or more characters with a mix of letters, numbers & symbols’. Beneath this, ‘Sign in instead’ appears in blue to the left and a blue ‘Next’ button to the right.

Complete the form to register your email account.

Enter your unique username and create a password.

Here’s an example:

A password needs to be safe, secure and memorable. It needs to be easy for you to remember but difficult for others to guess. If you have to, write your password down then keep it in a safe place.

A strong password is long, and ideally contains a mixture of letters, numbers and symbols. It should be at least 10 characters long. We will talk more about creating strong passwords in Lesson 3.

To finish setting up your account, you need to agree to the terms and conditions of the email service.