Newsreader Survey -- Which do you use?

Dec 17, 2016 51 Replies

I have been using Xnews for many years. Works great for me.

Anthony Watson

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Yep. I really like the filtering ability of T-bird, especially the "ignore subthread" option.

OE had some better keyboard shortcuts, but I got over that soon enough.

Jon

Some cut.

That ignore option is good to have after reading the 12th or 30th post in a thread. Rewrap under edit is nice too. I use it on my Mac.

Ran into that at the hospital where they have a waiting area for family of Critical Care and surgery. There are two computers you can use. Of course, restricted. I did have a form of entertainment though, someone left their Gmail account signed in. Now Robert's friends know how much he truly loves them.

I load my Agent off onto a thumb drive when I travel but I am still using computers that are open. I like it because it runs as a polite guest and leaves no tracks when you pull the drive out. There is nothing magic about that. Agent.Exe simply runs as a stand alone program, not beholden to any Windows registry resources. (it is not "installed") I haven't tried it but with the right drivers, it might run under DOS.

On Sat, 17 Dec 2016 19:48:18 -0800 (PST), snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com advised:

Ug.

I use tin. But what does this have to do with building something, maintaining something, and/or repairing it?

Just curious..., what does "I have to keep it's files on my PC instead of the NAS box" mean?

I am not sure what an NAS box is..

Per snipped-for-privacy@aol.com:

Never knew about that until now.

I call that a seriously-good feature.

Thanks all.

So far, on my Windows 10 computers, I have been trying Thunderbird and Windows Live Mail (WLM).

The WLM seems to be the closest to the Outlook Express that I am used to using, and I can do things like mark a thread as "Watched" which makes the whole thread turn to Red. I like that. But, I haven't found a way to customize the menu bars to include icons such as "Next Unread". And, when I reply to a message in WLM, it doesn't include the ">" attributes showing the prior text vs. my new text.

I can get Thunderbird to show menu icons such as "Next Unread" for navigating, and Thunderbird does include the">" attributes for quoting the prior text when submitting a reply to a message. But, when I want to mark a thread as "Watched" all it will do is place a small tag next to the first message in the thread but not next to the subthread messages. And, I haven't figured any way to get the "Watched" thread, and all messages in that Watched thread to become red or otherwise highlighted.

I am going to try Forte Agent -- maybe the paid version on a 30-day free trial, or may an older free version, and see how that works.

I also tried Opera based on suggestions from others elsewhere, but I haven't figured out how to get it to even work as a Newsreader -- which supposedly it can do.

It is true on my version anyway. YMMV on newer ones.

TomR has brought this to us :

Network Attached Storage.

I'm talking about computers that complain as soon as you plug the thumb drive in. (You may be too)

In that situation, running under DOS wouldn't work either. In fact, some of the computers I'm talking about won't even let you access the command prompt.

When I switched from Outlook Express many years ago I wasn't satisfied with any newsreader until I found Xananews. It has the closest "feel" to OE, but the functionality of a real newsreader that OE lacked. I've continued testing many other newsreaders over the years but can't bring myself to switch.

For my iPhone I use NewsTap or NewsTap Lite. It's not ideal, but far better than any other mobile ones available for iOS.

Per TomR:

Network-Attached Storage: basically a PC with multiple hard drives and a few bells and whistles that optimize it for storing data.

If you have multiple PCs/phones/tablets it provides the convenience of one-stop shopping: everything is on the NAS box and you can get to it from any device you happen to be using at the moment - as long as you can get to the LAN.

I understand that,. I am just talking about computers at your friends/family house, not something in a library or at work.

+1

No fuss, no muss, and no newsgroup server needed.

Well, after lots of whining and complaining, and tons of trial and error, I seem to have settled on using WLM for now. One of the things that I do not like about WLM is that it doesn?t use and apply the ">" attribute marks when quoting prior text. But, I just found a workaround for that called WLM QuoteFix. I found it here:

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I tried downloading and installing the "compiled" version as shown on the website and that worked easily. Then, I spent a long time trying to get the "edit" version to work in a way that I could customize the signature line a little. That finally worked too. And, for those who may be thinking of switching to, or trying, Windows Live Mail, Microsoft has announced that it will be ?ending support? for WLM on January 17, 2017. It will still work after that, but downloading the WLM software won?t be available after that. And, others here have pointed out that the trick for now is to download the wlsetup-all.exe file now (and save it) ? before January 17, 2017. Also, the file for the web-based installation of WLM will not work after January 17, 2017. So, be sure to get the specific wlsetup-all.exe file now. I had trouble finding exactly where to download the wlsetup-all.exe file, but someone elsewhere provided the direct link for the download shown below. Direct download to Microsoft server for the WLM12 installer executable file:

Full version 2012 installer:

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And, since I found this interesting, I think I'll post a new topic thread about the WLM Quotefix. P.S. While going through all of the various newsreader trials, I tried Forte Agent, WLM, Thunderbird, Xananews, etc. and just didn't like the way they operated and how the message lists etc. appeared on the screen. I also tried Opera but I couldn't get that to do anything since I didn't know how to get newsgroups via Opera -- just didn't know where to start with Opera open. And, I tried all kinds of tricks to get Windows 10 to allow me to run a Virtual Windows XP system so I could use Outlook Express, but apparently Microsoft has completely killed off that option.

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