Some email workflows, like updating a user's email, requires the back-end api-server to send outgoing emails. An alternative to using an email service provider to send actual email messages, Mailhog is a developer tool for email testing that will catch the email messages sent by your freeCodeCamp instance.
Download the latest version of MailHog from [MailHog's official repository](https://github.com/mailhog/MailHog/releases). Locate and click on the link for your Windows version (32 or 64 bit) and .exe file will be downloaded to your computer.
When the download completes, click to open the file. A Windows firewall notification may appear requesting access permission for MailHog. A standard Windows command line prompt will open where MailHog will be running once firewall access is granted.
Close MailHog by closing the command prompt window. To start MailHog again, click on the MailHog executable (.exe) file that was downloaded initially - it is not necessary to download a new MailHog intallation file.
Open a new browser tab or window and navigate to [http://localhost:8025](http://localhost:8025) to open your MailHog inbox when the MailHog installation has completed and MailHog is running. The inbox will appear similar to the screen shot below.
Two tabs that allow you to view either plain text or source content will be available when you open a given email. Ensure that the plain text tab is selected as below.
- Check out the [MailHog](https://github.com/mailhog/MailHog) repository for further information related to MailHog. Additional information is also available regarding custom MailHog configurations.