access to Windows XP Newsgroups

wisdom wrote:
> I am taking a computer software course and have been instructed to use
> Windows XP Newsgroups. Why can't I access Windows XP Newsgroups via Help and
> Support, in the Start menu as instructed by my textbook?


Because the text book is wrong. There is no direct Usenet access via
WinXP's Help and Support; for that, one needs a news reader.

Currently, you're accessing the newsgroups through that execrable web
interface. For more efficient access to Usenet newsgroups, use a news
reader, such as Outlook Express or Thunderbird.



--

Bruce Chambers

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http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

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killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot
 >> Stay informed about: access to Windows XP Newsgroups 

On Fri, 27 Nov 2009 13:40:15 -0800, wisdom
wrote:

> I am taking a computer software course and have been instructed to use
> Windows XP Newsgroups. Why can't I access Windows XP Newsgroups via Help and
> Support, in the Start menu as instructed by my textbook?


Please quote the textbook exactly, so we can understand what it says.
The way you describe it, it sounds completely wrong.

You are using the awful web interface to participate in this
newsgroup. It's the slowest, clunkiest, most error-prone method of
using the newsgroups there is. Do yourself a favor and switch to a
newsreader, such as Outlook Express, which comes with Windows XP, or
Windows Mail, which comes with Vista. See
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003
Please Reply to the Newsgroup
 >> Stay informed about: access to Windows XP Newsgroups 

You [probably] got mixed up as far as what your textbook said about NewsGroups and
the WinXP "Help and Support Center". What you [could] do with the Help and Support
Center was JOIN NewsGroups!

You would find a page there :

hcp://system/blurbs/windows_newsgroups.htm

(you can type the above "link" into the "Run" box on your Start Menu)

Here you find another link "Go to Windows Newsgroups" which should take you via the
internet to :
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=52

This link WOULD HAVE taken you to a web-based newsgroup site, but as support for XP
is gradually being withdrawn, it no longer does what it was supposed to.

Now, it re-directs you to :
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-xp/default.aspx

Which is NOT really about XP (despite it's URL) but tries it's very best to convince
you of the unending wonders awaiting you in the all-new-and-shiny: Win7!

So you're out of luck accessing newsgroups via Help and Support Centre I'm afraid.


Instead: Open up Outlook Express and choose from the top menus :

Tools > Accounts

.....and click on the "News" tab across the top. Then press on the "Add" button and
select "News". This starts a "Wizard" asking for stuff like your name and email
address (you are not obliged to give a real one in either case) then for a server on
the next page enter :

msnews.microsoft.com

.....then click on 'next' then 'finish' to exit. Having thus set up a news account,
go to the top menus again and select :

Tools > Newsgroups

....and select a couple of groups from the displayed list and for each, click on the
"Subscribe" button. Then close this dialog box and look at the bottom of the
"Folders" pane at the front of Outlook Express and you will see your groups displayed
and handled just like other emails are...

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.




"wisdom" wrote in message

>I am taking a computer software course and have been instructed to use
> Windows XP Newsgroups. Why can't I access Windows XP Newsgroups via Help and
> Support, in the Start menu as instructed by my textbook?
 >> Stay informed about: access to Windows XP Newsgroups 

wisdom wrote:
> I am taking a computer software course and have been instructed to use
> Windows XP Newsgroups. Why can't I access Windows XP Newsgroups via Help and
> Support, in the Start menu as instructed by my textbook?

Are you talking about the page in Help & Support that says "Go to a
Windows Newsgroup", then if you click on the link it takes you to the
Windows XP product homepage? If so then what's happening is the URL
address that's in the Help & Support center is out of date. Microsoft
has altered their web pages and when you clicked on that link a redirect
was issued to send you to the Windows XP product page instead.

--

Roy Smith
Windows XP Pro SP3
 >> Stay informed about: access to Windows XP Newsgroups