My Button is Back!

Well after a week of frustration - ignoring my computer - resetting everything - and scratching my head - my news button has finally returned!!!

*jumps for joy*

i decided that knowing that most problems are described somewhere on the internet i would do some googling.

Using "microsoft outlook 2003 news reader troubleshoot" as my search text i came up with the usual results. I was looking for something not done by microsoft as i figured there was a chance this was a microsoft problem and that they wouldn't supply me with any extra info that i hadn't already found on them. Instead I found http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/news.htm

Getting the News button in Outlook 2003

So you upgraded to Outlook 2003 and now are missing the Go-> News option? There are some methods to get the option back or open the newsreader in a different way;

• By editing the registry so it behaves like previous versions of Outlook
• By setting the defaults to use Outlook Express
• By starting the Outlook Express Newsreader from a shortcut
• Looking for a newsreader add-in?

I started by trying the shortcut but wasn't happy with how this was working - so i went with changing the defaults. By following the following instructions my menu option has finally returned!

Method 2: Setting the defaults to use Outlook Express

Make sure the options are set correctly in Internet Options

1. Go to Internet Options by using Start-> Control Panel-> Internet Options
2. In Internet Options go to the Programs tab
3. For Newsgroups set Outlook Express as the default Newsreader
4. Press OK to close Internet Options

Do not let Outlook or Outlook Express let themselves set to the default newsreader

1. Start Outlook Express like you normally do. When it asks whether you want to set Outlook Express as your default mail and news handler choose “No”.
2. Close Outlook Express
3. Start Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 like you normally do. When it asks whether you want to set Microsoft Office Outlook as your default mail and news handler choose “No”.
4. Leave Outlook open and continue to the next section

Setting the Toolbar

All is left to do now is adding the option to the Toolbar

1. Choose View-> Toolbars-> Customize
2. Select the Commands tab
3. From the Categories list select “Go”
4. From the Commands list select “News” and drag & drop it to any place you want on the Toolbar. The default location is in the “Go” menu.
5. Press Close to return to Outlook.

All is again well in the world of my computer.