Outlook 2003 Newsgroups

I am using Win7 Pro 32 bit and since it does NOT come with an email program I have to improvise. I had Microsoft Office 2003, so I installed it without any issues.

I then opened Outlook and setup my isp email without any difficulties. Now what I really want is to setup Newsgroups in Outlook, so I googled and found a pdf (specific to Outlook 2003).

The instructions were as follows:

Set up requires two steps:

• Modify Outlook Toolbar
• Subscribe to the groups using Microsoft Outlook Newsreader

First your Outlook tool bar must be customized to enable a link to open Outlook Express Newsreader.

To customize your Outlook toolbar:

1. Select View Toolbars Customize.
2. Click on the Commands tab.
3. In the Customize dialog box, select Go under Categories.
4. Under Commands, select News and drag it to your toolbar.

This is where it hits the fan; under Commands there no option called "News".

I want this feature and I tried the email program that Microsoft recommends and it is worse than I could have imagined so I uninstalled it.

Now I am back to Outlook 2003 and how to setup Newsgroups.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I have a lot of experience with newsgroups but none with Outlook.

I did use Outlook Express with newsgroups, but OE is not available in Win 7.

Are you locked into Outlook? I ask because it is likely overkill if you just want an email program that can handle newsgroups.

I use Thunderbird.

Yes with Win XP I still use Outlook Express, but I am trying to get entirely away from XP. I think Win 7 is or will be an excellent OS. Why OE seemed to have fallen from favor with Microsoft, who knows; sometimes it seems they get rid of things just to drive me crazy.

Are you locked into Outlook?

I am not really locked into anything. I am one of those 1% that actually use newgroups and even have to pay extra for the service since every ISP I know of no longer provides them.

Newsgroups is one of the little things that makes me keep Win XP hanging around.

I hear you. I've used newsgroups for over 15 years.

My ISP just dropped newsgroups, so now I have to pay (Astraweb, $25 for 180 GB used whenever I want).

For binaries I use GrabIt.

The best text reader I ever used was a Unix program--I think it was called TRIN or something like that. That went away when I got away from my dialup ISP. Wickedly fast and done purely through the keyboard. Now, I am having to make do with graphic interfaces.

Thunderbird is tolerable for newsgroups, but that is about it.

Not only do I use Newsgroups for a vast array of information, I do a lot of download from them also. That is why I now pay forteinc.com $15 a month for unlimited use.

It was funny NOT) when my first isp dropped newsgroups and I switched isp's and dang if my new isp did not drop them within a month or so. To say the least I was really ticked off.

There has to be a way to run newsgroups in Outlook, I just have not found it yet.

You may have already seen these google hits:

"newsgroups in outlook 2003" -express - Google Search

wherein a Brian Tillman says stuff like:

Since Outlook can't read newsgroups anyway, why bother. Just create a Quick
Launch shortcut to your newsreader.

and

Outlook doesn't implement an NNTP transport. You can purchase add-ins that
do, however.

So, this add in may work; I guess you have to buy it??


MAPILab - MAPILab NNTP for Outlook - Outlook add-in for reading and posting messages to newsgroups

Or ditch the Outlook idea?