Welcome to our "Create Yahoo Email Account" Tutorial: learn how to sign up for a free email address from the world's top three webmail provider, first launched in 1997! (Second or third most popular, alongside Hotmail / Outlook.com and Google's Gmail.)
When you sign up for a Yahoo email address, it automatically creates a "Yahoo account" and profile, which you can use to login to any of that company's service (like Yahoo news, to vote comments up or down), or any site that uses Yahoo as authentication. Conversely, you cannot create a Yahoo profile without automatically receiving an email address that matches the username you pick.
Yahoo's email address domain depends on the sign-up page you pick: each link in the listing below opens in a new window. Once you have opened the page for the country domain you like (you don't have to be from or inside that country at the moment), click on the red Next button below the listing.
Tip: if the link opens someone's inbox (they didn't logout), move your mouse over the "Hi, [user name]" (top right corner), and click on "Sign Out" in the dropdown menu. Then, start over. 
| English-speaking Countries where Yahoo offers localized email | ||
|---|---|---|
| Country | Email address ends in... | Corresponding sign-up page |
United States  | @yahoo.com | Sign-up Link |
| Australia | @yahoo.com.au | Sign-up Page |
| Canada | @yahoo.ca | Sign-up Link |
| Great Britain (UK and Northern Ireland) | @yahoo.co.uk | Sign-up Link |
| Ireland (ÉIRE) | @yahoo.ie | Sign-up Link |
| New Zealand | @yahoo.co.nz | Sign-up Link |
| South Africa | @yahoo.co.za | Sign-up Page |
| United States | @yahoo.com | Sign-up Link |
| Other Countries with large English-speaking population | ||
| India | @yahoo.in | Sign-up Link |
| Israel | @yahoo.co.il | Sign-up Link |
| Philippines | @yahoo.com.ph | Sign-up Link |
Note: for any country not listed above, type mail.yahoo followed by your country's domain extension in your browser's address bar (like mail.yahoo.fr for France, mail.yahoo.ch for Switzerland, etc.) 
Caution: go through the sign up form in one go, because your "session" (how long the web server "remembers" you) expires fast. It did it three times while we were writing this tutorial!
When you see the sign-in form, click on the "Create New Account" button at the top. (Clicking on the Facebook or Google buttons below it would allow you to login to and use Yahoo Mail with one of those services as authenticators; this tutorial show you how to create your own email account.) 
Once the form loads, enter your first name and last name as you'd like them to appear when you send messages from Yahoo Mail in a web browser. If you use a desktop email program like Windows Live Mail, the "From" name is the one entered when you setup that account in that app!
In the "Pick a Yahoo! ID" text field, choose the username you want (part of the email address that comes right before @ symbol): it needs to be between 4 and 32 characters long, and start with a letter; it can include numbers and underscores ("_"), and up to one period (a "." dot). As you type, Yahoo will tell you if this username is available or not ("This ID is not available"), and suggest alternatives if needed: 
Side info: if you are using the sign up form for a particular country, you can check the same username with "@yahoo.com" and with your country's domain extension: 
Now's time to choose a password: it will be used as your email account password, and to login to any service that uses your Yahoo profile (My Yahoo!, Flickr, etc.) It needs to be at least 8-characters long, but not more than 32; and it cannot include your name or Yahoo! ID (which would be too easy to guess by hackers!) For a more secure password, use letters, numbers, and symbols (like @, ?, $, %, _, …). 
Caution - your password is case-sensitive: uppercase and lowercase letters are considered different. So, make sure that CapsLock is off, and remember how you capitalize everything!
In Yahoo's real-time, password-strength meter, try to get to green ("Very Strong") if possible: you'll get various error messages to guide you to a secure password ("Password cannot be all letters" if you forgot numbers and/or symbols). Retype your account password in the second field, as confirmation.
Next, pick your date of birth: enter your actual birthday, since this info may be used to restore access to your account should it be hacked, or should you forget its password. Then, pick your gender, language, and country from the dropdowns (all this can be changed later on through "Account Info"). Your postal code (zip) is used to customize both news and weather data for your area. 
The last section of the form collects optional pieces of data that are used in case you forget your password. Pick your country code next to Mobile Phone and enter your cell phone (numbers only). Yahoo will send to it SMS text messages with password reset information. Under Alternate Email, type an email address to which Yahoo can send password hints or reset links: it can come from any provider (Hotmail, Gmail, your own POP3/IMAP domain, etc. - doesn't have to be another Yahoo email account!) 
Caveat: depending on cell phone plan / provider, you may be charged for text messages sent to your device. Yahoo only uses your phone number for password-reset links you request (no spam!)
Now, click on the Create my account button to setup your email address: it assumes that you accept Yahoo's Terms of Service, Privacy Policy and Communications Terms (clickable links on the form). 
Finally, pick two secret questions and security answers, used to verify your identity if you need to regain access to your account without password. If you don't like any of the questions offered, you can choose "Type your question here" at the bottom of each dropdown menu: this also happens to be the most secure option, since you can make the question as cryptic as you like for anyone else! 
Tip: your secret answer can be anything you like, but it must be at least four-characters long. It is not case-sensitive (uppercase and lowercase doesn't matter now, or when you need to supply it).
Enter the "captcha" code displayed, to "prove that you are human": click on the second button to get a scary-sounding audio code, or the third button to see another (possibly easier) code to type.
Click on the "Done" button, and you'll see a confirmation / summary screen: click on "Get Started", and choose whether or not to make Yahoo your homepage. You will be redirected to yahoo.com - click on the Mail icon near the top right corner to go to your inbox and read Yahoo's welcome email! 
And you now have a Yahoo email account that you can start using! Click "Compose" (near top left) to send an email to your friends, and on the Contacts tab to populate your address book.
Once logged into your account, move your mouse above your username, in the top right corner of the page, and click "Profile" under the dropdown menu.
A new page will open (make sure that it's not blocked by your popup blocker), showing your "public" Yahoo profile. If needed, click on the purple "Create your public profile" button. Then, click on "Settings" (wrench icon on the right).
Click on "Account Info" on the next page, and enter your current password if asked to. Select "Change your password" under "Sign-In and Security". To verify your identity, type your current password in the first text field; then, enter your new password, and a second time for confirmation: it should be 8 to 32 characters long, and include a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols - and it cannot contain your name or Yahoo! ID.
Click Save: you can start using your new credentials right away. Remember to update it in web browsers where it is stored with a feature like Auto-Complete / password manager / Auto-Fill.
For detailed click-instructions on accessing your profile settings, see the previous step: you can also directly open your Yahoo! profile page (the link opens in a new window).
Click on Account Info, and enter your password if prompted to: on the next screen, click on the "Update your contact information" link under Contact Information (second section).
Next to "Name", enter an optional salutation / title (Mr., Mrs., Ms., etc.) in the first field, followed by your desired first name and last name. First and last names will be used as the "From" display name when you send messages from your Yahoo Mail in a web browser: 
Scroll all the way down and click on the "Save" button. You can now close the window to return to your emails: the next message you send will reflect your new "From" name!