What Is Microsoft Exchange? Here’s What You Need to Know

  • Microsoft Exchange is a Microsoft e-mail service usually utilized by companies and educational establishments.
  • Exchange synchronizes e-mail between an Exchange server and your shopper e-mail app, comparable to Outlook.
  • Here’s a short overview of Microsoft Exchange, what it’s, and what it could actually do.
  • Visit Insider’s Tech Reference library for more stories.

Microsoft Exchange is an e-mail server that runs on Windows Server working methods. Exchange works with web-based mail purchasers like Microsoft Outlook, which might join to and handle e-mail from quite a lot of sources. In truth, Outlook is actually optimized for Exchange and solely works finest while you’re utilizing an Exchange account. 

What is Microsoft Exchange 

Microsoft Exchange is an e-mail service supplied by Microsoft that is most frequently utilized by companies and educational establishments. It’s a extremely scalable answer that may assist an enormous variety of customers, and is designed from the bottom up to maintain e-mail in sync between the server and end-user purchasers. Exchange delivers not simply e-mail but in addition a world deal with ebook of contacts, calendaring, assembly scheduling, and activity administration. 

How Microsoft Exchange works

Microsoft Exchange depends on the usage of an Exchange server — a pc on which particular person customers’ Exchange accounts are configured. An group can keep its personal Exchange server or depend on Microsoft to do this through the cloud utilizing a Microsoft 365 account.

When you employ a Microsoft Exchange account, e-mail messages — together with calendar data and different Outlook particulars — are usually stored in sync between your Outlook shopper on a pc or cellular machine and the Exchange server. 

This most frequently occurs utilizing a know-how referred to as Exchange ActiveSync. ActiveSync retains all of the Exchange information synchronized between units, so when e-mail is replied to, deleted, or moved in your pc, for instance, that change is straight away made on the Exchange server as properly, after which synchronized with every other units you would possibly use, comparable to Outlook on a cellular machine. 

ActiveSync is not the one choice, although; a company can select to handle its e-mail utilizing IMAP or POP as properly. IMAP may be very related to ActiveSync in that it retains e-mail messages in sync between the Exchange server and purchasers, although POP works in a different way — it downloads e-mail from the Exchange server to a single pc and doesn’t maintain the 2 units in sync. It’s not generally used for Exchange methods. 

How to discover your Microsoft Exchange particulars

You can discover out in case you’re utilizing an Exchange account by checking your Account Settings in Outlook. To do this, select “File” after which click on “Account Settings.” In the dropdown menu, click on “Account Settings.” You’ll see a abstract of your configured e-mail accounts with a sign of which of them are utilizing Microsoft Exchange. 

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Outlook’s Account Settings will present you which ones of your accounts are utilizing Microsoft Exchange.

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In addition, chances are you’ll have the option to entry your Exchange e-mail in an internet browser. Called Outlook Web Access (OWA), the hyperlink for this webpage is in Outlook’s account settings. At the highest of the web page, click on the account dropdown and select an Exchange account. You ought to see a hyperlink to entry the account on the net.

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Use the dropdown menu on the prime of the Account Information web page to choose an account. Exchange accounts can normally be opened in a webpage.

Dave Johnson/Business Insider


As a common rule, as an finish person you do not want to know many particulars about how Exchange is configured to set it up or to use it. Your IT administrator ought to present an e-mail deal with and password; to get began, you merely add the e-mail deal with to Outlook and your e-mail shopper ought to decide it is an Exchange account and configure it robotically for you.

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