Using Outlook with Newsgroups

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Outlook doesn't explicitly support Internet-based Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) newsgroups. Instead, it does something slightly confusing: it takes the version of Outlook Express you have installed on your system—or the version that was installed when you installed Outlook 2000—disables all mail support in the program, and calls it Microsoft Outlook Newsreader in some places and Outlook Express in others. This is confusing to many, and we personally disable this Outlook Newsreader and use Outlook Express by default. It works exactly the same as Outlook Newsreader, except that if you have any additional mail accounts that you like to use in Outlook Express (such as a Hotmail account), they aren't hidden when you access your newsgroups from Outlook.

Microsoft might decide to integrate Outlook Express's Newsreader directly into a future version of Outlook. Until then, we recommend that you stick to the full blown version of Outlook Express, unless you or your users access e-mail only in Outlook, in which case the Outlook Newsreader might be just the ticket for you to eliminate the confusion of having two different Inboxes. You make the call.