Two questions on Outlook and Outlook Express

[Dave Gower]

I've been using OE for many years, and finally on the advice of a friend in
the business decided to start using Outlook instead. I have two questions:

a) is there a way to access newsgroups without going to the view-go to-(wait
for list to drop)news sequence. I can't get a "news" button to appear in the
left frame

b) on my other computer (a two-year old Toshiba laptop) I can't find
Outlook, only OE. Did Microsoft sell XP with OE only? If so, how do I
install Outlook?

 

[Cody Wheeler]

Dave if your runnig Windows XP Pro go to your control panel then click on
add remove programs then when that comes up click on add/remove windows
components it takes a minute to load the components then when it does come
up click on the down arrow and outlook Express when you see it click it so
it checks the box and it should install it if thats all thats in that
components list then yes your laptop only comes with OE Good luck (Outlook
express and outlook should be in there if your laptop has both) Good luck

 

[John Blessing]

I've been using OE for many years, and finally on the advice of a friend
in the business decided to start using Outlook instead. I have two
questions:

a) is there a way to access newsgroups without going to the view-go
to-(wait for list to drop)news sequence. I can't get a "news" button to
appear in the left frame

b) on my other computer (a two-year old Toshiba laptop) I can't find
Outlook, only OE. Did Microsoft sell XP with OE only? If so, how do I
install Outlook?

Outlook doesn't come with any Windows o/s. It is either sold separately,
sold as part of Office or bundled with most pocket PCs.

Outlook is a different program to OE and can't access newsgroups. You must
use OE for that.
--
John Blessing

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emails/newsletters

 

[Barry Watzman]

Outlook Express comes with Windows. Outlook, which is a very different
program in spite of the similarity of the name, is part of Microsoft
Office (it's also available separately but is rarely actually bought
that way) and does not normally come with Windows (an OEM could offer
such a configuration, but I've never seen it). Normally, the only way
people have outlook is if they have Microsoft Office.

I use Netscape 7 for newsgroups (and web browsing).

 

[Dave Gower]

Outlook is a different program to OE and can't access newsgroups. You must
use OE for that.

But I don't understand. I AM using Outlook to read newsgroups. I'm sending
this very reply that way. It's just that it's awkward to get to the
newsreader, as I said on my first post.

I right-click on the "outlook newsreader" line and it shows "add to Outlook
bar" in the menu, but it's not live. Obviously the Outlook I have is set up
to read newsgroups, just not conveniently. There's something very strange
going on here. Can anyone explain?

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

You are using OE in news-only mode. You can customize the toolbar and move
the News button to the upper level, you can create a shortcut anywhere
(including on the outlook bar or quick launch) - using a command line format
of msimn.exe /outnews.

 

[Barry Watzman]

No, what you are doing (although you don't realize it) is launching the
newsgroup reader of Outlook express using a button / menu function of
Outlook. But all that this does is launch Outlook express. The comment
that you have to use OE to read newsgroups is technically correct, but
by putting a button/menu function to launch Outlook Express into
Outlook, the true nature of what is going on has been hidden from you.

 

[Dave Gower]

No, what you are doing (although you don't realize it) is launching the
newsgroup reader of Outlook express using a button / menu function of
Outlook. But all that this does is launch Outlook express.

Thank you, Diane and Barry. This makes sense now, but I really have to
wonder why MS hasn't wrapped all this into IE rather than have so many
fragmented programs. Very confusing for people like me. Following Leo
Laporte's advice, I downloaded Mozilla last night and will start playing
with it.

 

[Brian Tillman]

a) is there a way to access newsgroups without going to the view-go
to-(wait for list to drop)news sequence. I can't get a "news" button
to appear in the left frame

Since Outlook doesn't read newsgroups natively, but uses Outlook Express
with the /outnews command line switch, my approach is to create a shortcut
whose target is

"%Program Files%\Outlook Express\msimn.exe" /outnews

and put that on my Quick Launch bar.

b) on my other computer (a two-year old Toshiba laptop) I can't find
Outlook, only OE. Did Microsoft sell XP with OE only? If so, how do I
install Outlook?

No version of Windows comes with any component of Office. If you get a new
PC and it has Office (or part of Office) preinstalled, it was because the
OEM bundled it with your PC, not because it comes with Windows XP. Usually,
having Office installed is an option you can choose when you order the PC.
Windows XP does, however, come with Outlook Express, since that's part of
Internet Explorer.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Outlook is an email client and Personal Information Manager with well over
half of the users in corporate or business settings. These users are often
blocked from accessing newsgroups and many admins want to control their
internet access. The users need better features than an email client built
into a browser could offer.

Outlook Express is a simple mail and news client for the non-corporate user
who just needs mail and news.

You should always use the client that meets *your* needs the best - if you
need just email and news and want it more or less merged with your browser,
then use Mozilla. If you need calendaring, you'll need Outlook.