How to log into two or more Webmail accounts simultaneously in Internet Explorer 8

Nowadays almost every webmail user has more than one account on a service, and at times needs to log into them simultaneously. You have the option to do this by using different browsers. But if you want to use a single browser, IE8 has a new feature that lets you log into different webmail accounts at the same time.

Internet Explorer 8 now lets you start an entirely new session by opening a “New Session” window . You can access this in the File Menu: File > New Session. If you are currently logged into your main Gmail account and want to check your other Gmail account, just open a new session Window and the session cookies of your main Gmail account would not be shared in this new window, thus letting your log into the other account.

Internet Explorer isn’t known to bring new features to the table, but other browsers can take a cue from IE8 regarding this feature as its quite useful.

 

Drawbacks of the New Session Feature:

1. There isn’t a direct shortcut key to open the new session window in the current version of IE8.
2. Many services let you check the “remember me” option so that you stay logged into the account even if you close the browser. This creates a “Persistent Cookie” instead of the Session cookie and thus the New Session Window would still log you into the old account instead of the new one. To avoid this from happening just keep the remember me option unchecked.

Creating shortcuts for the New Session Window:

1. Although there isn’t a direct shortcut key to the New Session window, if you want to access it via keyboard, you can use Alt+F, click i to get to the new Session option and hit Enter. So the Keyboard shortcut is : Alt+F i Enter.
2. You can create a shortcut on desktop and use the command line parameter –nomerge to open a new window of Internet Explorer with a new session. You can do it by first creating a IE8 shortcut on the desktop and then adding the no merge parameter to it in the Target box as "C:Program FilesInternet Exploreriexplore.exe" -nomerge as shown in the image below.
    

You can go a step further and create a shortcut key like the one the one created above Ctrl + Shift + N. Now whenever I press Ctrl + Shift + N, I get a IE8 window with a New Session and log into Multiple webmail accounts simultaneously.

Further Reading: Sign in with different IDs and Use Multiple instances of Windows Live Messenger on the same computer

This post was originally written on November 2, 2010