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Unfortunately, there’s no Google app in Windows, and it doesn’t look like one will ever see the light of day, so unless you normally access all your Google services  Mail, Calendar and more within a web browser, you

can’t view your emails or check what’s happening in your diary in Windows without loading up the web and logging in each time. That is unless you know the secret way to add them… And, we’re going to show you how, so you can view Gmail from within the Windows Mail app (or Outlook.com). We will also show you how to view your crucial calendars from Google in your Outlook.com calendar. The real adIntegrate Gmail into

Windows 8.1’s Mail appvantage of doing this is that you can view all your emails and calendar entries in one place, within Outlook, whether they’re from Gmail or Outlook.

First, open the Mail app from the Modern UI interface (the tiled screen), or you can just search for it by using the Windows+[Q] shortcut, typing Mail and hitting ‘Enter’ when it appears in the menu. Once you’re inside the app, point your mouse cursor in the top-right corner of the screen to open the charms bar and click on the Settings option that appears.

On the new side bar that appears, click on Accounts. This is where you’ll normally see all the accounts connected to the Mail app, but there might not be any here. To connect a new one, click ‘Add an account’ and then select the account type you’d like to add; in this case it’s the Google one that we want to connect, but if you’d like to add other accounts just follow the same procedure.

In the window that appears, enter your login details for the Google account that you normally use so an email address and your password. Then click ‘Sign in’ to give the Maill app access to your account information. You’ll need to allow Mail to access some of your Google settings, so click ‘Accept’ when prompted. Click ‘Yes’ to allow Windows to remember your sign in information.

Now click on ‘Connect’ to access Gmail in all the other areas you would use your Microsoft account, such as on Outlook.com the web version of the Mail app. Sign in and you’ll be taken to Mail. You’ll see your Gmail emails, as well as any other folders you normally use. Don’t worry if you can’t see another email account you have connected, you can switch between them any time.

Although you’ve connected Gmail to Outlook, you’ll still need to import your Gmail settings. Go to www.outlook.com and log in using the same Microsoft account you use for your PC. Click on the settings cog in the top menu, choose ‘Options > Import email accounts’ and click on Google. Finally, click Start to import Gmail into Outlook.com. Sign into your Gmail account once more.

The import process could take some time, depending on how many emails you have in your account. Once it’s finished, you’ll see that your Gmail emails are merged with your Outlook ones, which might not be entirely to your liking. To see your Gmail emails on their own, click on your email address under the ‘Categories’ heading in bottom of the left hand menu.

You can also access your Gmail calendars from within Windows sign into your Gmail account, go to your Calendar (or head to www.google.com/calendar), click the arrow next to My calendars and choose ‘Settings’. Then click ‘Export calendars’ to save a file to your PC containing an ICS file for each of your

calendars. Unzip the file not forgetting where you put the ICS files.

Go to Outlook.com, click on Calendar on the main menu. Click ‘Import’ then hit the ‘Choose File’ button. Navigate to where you saved the ICS files, open one of them and give it a colour, name and charm, if you like. Finally, click on Import and you’ll see your Gmail calendar within the Outlook.com calendar. You should now have all your Gmail activities synced with Windows.