News in MS Outlook

[HDS Tom]

Okay, so to post to this newsgroup, I customized a toolbar and added the
"News" option from the "Go" menu. Then I posted a few questions to the
newsgroups, read a few other posts, and closed Outlook Express. Later, I go
back to read more news, click on the News button on my toolbar, and get a
popup file folder (I believe that it is actually the folder on the computer
where some Outlook Express files are stored, but am not sure). So I restart
Outlook, only to find that the "News" button in my toolbar is GONE and I
can't even put it back, because the "News" option under the "Go" menu is
also missing!!

<scratches head in confusion>

How do I fix this? Any idea what causes this? I managed to find the
Outlook Express application and maually start it (so I could make this
post), but how do I continue to open the Newsreader from Outlook, if I can't
put the button on the toolbar, or even select it from the "Go" menu.

Thanks!!

Tom

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

<scratches head in confusion>

In your confusion you've also posted your problem to the WRONG
newsgroup.

ask this in microsoft.public.outlookexpress.general

 

[Diane Poremsky]

To get the News command back, go back to the Programs tab in Control Panel |
Internet Options and change the default newsreader to Outlook Express. If
OE prompts you to make it your default newsreader the next time you launch
it, click the "Don't ask me again" box and then click the No button.

You may need to reset the menu or toolbar using Tools, customize.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

the missing News button is outlook's problem

 

[DL]

Personally I prefer the dedicated shortcut in my quick launch
"%ProgramFiles%\Outlook Express\msimn.exe" /outnews

 

[Brian Tillman]

So I restart Outlook, only to
find that the "News" button in my toolbar is GONE and I can't even
put it back, because the "News" option under the "Go" menu is also
missing!!
<scratches head in confusion>

How do I fix this?

Open Internet Explorer and click Tools>Internet Options>Programs. In the
"Newsgroups" drop-down, select Outlook Express. Click OK. Start Outlook
Express and if it asks if it should be the default news handler, check the
"Do not ask again" box and click No. Close OE and open Outlook. If it asks
if you want it to be your default mail and news handler, choose No. You
should be able to find the News item again and add it to the Go menu.

Any idea what causes this?

No idea, myself, but it's one of the most frequest issues found in these
newsgroups. Google Groups would have found for you the many times it has
been posted in less time than it took for you to type the question.

 

[VanguardLH]

Personally I prefer the dedicated shortcut in my quick launch
"%ProgramFiles%\Outlook Express\msimn.exe" /outnews

For the OP's info, the /outnews loads OE in news-only mode. Any
e-mail accounts defined in OE are disabled and you cannot send/receive
e-mails when in that mode. If you don't have any e-mail accounts
defined in OE, /outnews is superfluous. If you do have e-mail
accounts defined in OE, and if you never want to use OE as your e-mail
client, even if accidentally, then /outnews prevents you from doing
e-mail in OE.

Personally I have yet to understand why any user would bother to first
load Outlook and then click on a button to have Outlook load Outlook
Express. Seems a lot easier and faster to just load Outlook Express
in the first place. Outlook has not and probably never will handle
NNTP (network news transfer protocol) so it has to load Outlook
Express to handle newsgroups. Some users leave Outlook running all
the time and so figure a toolbar button makes it easy to get Outlook
Express loaded to do newsgroups. Seems like the same reasoning
applies to having a shortcut in your QuickLaunch or other toolbar in
the Windows taskbar for one-click access to Outlook Express. Even
when I have Outlook open, I still using by Quicklaunch button to load
OE.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

As for the "why" it happens, its related to the news only mode in OE.
Outlook express title bar used to say "Outlook Newsreader" if you used Go,
News (or use the /outnews switch) - if you use the /newsonly switch (or
opened OE in mail and news mode) it’s the OE Newsreader. It was very
confusing to people and after many complaints, they dropped the Outlook
Newsreader BS. But... they missed something when they made this change and
the "Outlook newsreader" is no longer recognized when its set as the default
in Internet Options. Unfortunately, its still listed there.