Cannot add News button to Outlook menu bar

[Jocarbo]

Supposedly, the button News should be available in Outlook commands to add to
the menu bar. In my case, it is not. I have Windows Mail installed on my
system but it is not the default client, Outlook is. Has anyone run into
this problem?

 

[Hal Hostetler [MVP-P/I]]

'Control Panel|Default Programs|Set your default Programs', make sure that
"Windows Mail (News)" is the default newsreader and that it has all defaults
chosen for it.

Hal
--
Hal Hostetler, CPBE -- (e-mail address removed)
Senior Engineer/MIS -- MS MVP-Print/Imaging -- WA7BGX
http://www.kvoa.com -- "When News breaks, we fix it!"
KVOA Television, Tucson, AZ. NBC Channel 4
Still Cadillacin' - www.badnewsbluesband.com

 

[Jocarbo]

Thanks Hal, but Windows Mail (News) is set (all defaults) as the default.
--
Mahalo,
Joe

'Control Panel|Default Programs|Set your default Programs', make sure that
"Windows Mail (News)" is the default newsreader and that it has all defaults
chosen for it.

Hal
--
Hal Hostetler, CPBE -- (e-mail address removed)
Senior Engineer/MIS -- MS MVP-Print/Imaging -- WA7BGX
http://www.kvoa.com -- "When News breaks, we fix it!"
KVOA Television, Tucson, AZ. NBC Channel 4
Still Cadillacin' - www.badnewsbluesband.com

 

[VanguardLH]

Supposedly, the button News should be available in Outlook commands to add to
the menu bar. In my case, it is not. I have Windows Mail installed on my
system but it is not the default client, Outlook is. Has anyone run into
this problem?

Your version of Outlook might not have the News button to add when
customizing the toolbar. You didn't mention WHICH version of Outlook
that you use. IIRC, the News button showed up for 2003, and later,
versions of Outlook.

 

[Jocarbo]

I'm using Outlook 2007, SP1. Thanks for the quick reply.

 

[VanguardLH]

I'm using Outlook 2007, SP1. Thanks for the quick reply.

Might the News button be hidden (depending on how you positioned the
toolbars)? If it isn't a button listed when you want to customize the
toolbar, maybe Outlook thinks the button is already in the toolbar. In
that case, see if resetting the toolbar(s) back to defaults returns the
News button. Right-click on a toolbar, Customize, and then reset the
selected toolbar (I don't have Outlook open right now but that
navigation should get you close to how to reset the toolbar back to its
default setup).

IIRC, the outcmd.dat file holds the customizations and deleting it
returns the toolbars back to their install-time defaults.

If the News button returns but then disappears again, an add-on that is
using toolbar customizations might be causing the problem. See what
happens when you delete the outcmd.dat file and then start Outlook in
its safe mode ("outlook.exe /safe").

 

[Jocarbo]

Hmmm, I tried all you suggested with the same result. However, while in
"safe" mode Outlook wouldn't let me make any changes to the toolbar
(add/remove buttons). Thamks for your suggestions though. Maybe a corrupt
install?

 

[VanguardLH]

Hmmm, I tried all you suggested with the same result. However, while in
"safe" mode Outlook wouldn't let me make any changes to the toolbar
(add/remove buttons). Thamks for your suggestions though. Maybe a corrupt
install?

I'm not sure why you even care if there is a News button in Outlook.
Outlook does not support NNTP (network news transfer protocol). It
never has and still does not support NNTP. All the News button does is
call whatever program is currently specified as the default NNTP client
(Hal already told you how to do that). Outlook doesn't do newsgroups.
It has to load a different program to handle newsgroups.

Why waste time starting up Outlook or reopening its minimized window to
click on a News button when you could easily click a shortcut in a
toolbar in the Windows taskbar to startup whatever NNTP client that you
want to use?