During the electron probe microanalysis of alkali containing glasses the concentration of sodium and potassium in the analyzed volume decays rapidly. At the electron beam currents normally used for microanalysis this decay is so severe that it is not possible to carry out a meaningful analysis at a selected point in the specimen. Not only can no quantitative analysis be performed on a small volume, but the region irradiated by the electron beam is often so severely damaged that a crater or bubble is formed and the conducting surface coating is broken. It has proved possible to considerably alleviate the decay effect by reducing the beam current by several orders of magnitude and using a Si (Li) energy dispersive detector. This article describes the performance of reasonable semi-quantitative analyses of glasses of a wide range of compositions using this technique without any visible damage.