Adding an alternate account to your Visual Studio subscription is a straightforward process, allowing you to link a different email address for accessing subscription benefits.
How to Add an Alternate Account
The process involves a few simple steps through the Visual Studio Subscriptions portal.
Step-by-Step Guide
To add an alternate account to your Visual Studio subscription, follow these instructions:
- Navigate to the Subscriptions Portal: Open your web browser and connect to the Visual Studio Subscriptions portal.
- Locate "Add Alternate Account": On the portal page, look for and select the option labeled 'Add alternate account'.
- Enter Email Address: In the designated field, carefully enter the email address you wish to use as your alternate account.
- Confirm Addition: Select 'Add' to finalize the process and link the new email address to your subscription.
Summary of Steps to Add an Alternate Account
For a quick overview, the steps are summarized in the table below:
| Step | Action | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Connect | Navigate to my.visualstudio.com/subscriptions. |
| 2 | Select | Choose the 'Add alternate account' option. |
| 3 | Enter | Provide the email address for the alternate account. |
| 4 | Confirm | Click 'Add' to complete the linking process. |
Why Use an Alternate Account?
Adding an alternate account is beneficial for several practical reasons, especially if you use different email addresses for various Microsoft services.
- Unified Access: You might have a Visual Studio subscription tied to your corporate email but prefer to access certain benefits, like Azure DevOps services, with a personal or different work email. An alternate account allows you to use either identity to access your subscription's benefits without needing to transfer the subscription itself.
- Flexibility: It provides flexibility in how you sign in and utilize the wide array of development tools, cloud services, training, and support included with your subscription.
- Streamlined Workflow: For developers working on multiple projects or with different organizations, an alternate identity can help streamline access to resources without constant account switching.
Understanding Alternate Identities
Alternate identities are designed to give subscribers more control over how they access their Visual Studio subscription benefits. They are particularly useful for scenarios where your primary subscription sign-in might not be the most convenient email for all associated services. For more detailed information on leveraging alternate identities and their capabilities, exploring the concept of alternate identities within Visual Studio subscriptions can provide deeper insights.
