Starting Windows Live Mail in Newsgroups

[Gordon]

I only use Windows Live mail for Newsgroups (I use Outlook for mail and
calendar). Is there a way of starting WLM in News rather than in mail? (I
couldn't see anything in Options....)

Thanks

[Robert Aldwinckle]

"Gordon" <gbpl...@gmail.com.invalid> wrote in message
news:#lfQYRy6...@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

Have you left OE behind or at least let WLM to take over its filetype
associations?

If so, I would try creating a shortcut to your NNTP server. E.g.

news://msnews.microsoft.com/

At least that used to work in OE...

Hmm... I just realized that *I* can probably do that too explicitly:

E.g. here are the filetype actions I have associated with news
(mostly OE as mentioned):

<cmd_output>
F:\WINDOWS\system32>ftype | find /i "news"
Microsoft Internet News Message="F:\Program Files\Windows Live\Mail\wlmail.exe" /nws:%1
news="%ProgramFiles%\Outlook Express\msimn.exe" /newsurl:"%1"
nntp="%ProgramFiles%\Outlook Express\msimn.exe" /newsurl:"%1"
snews="%ProgramFiles%\Outlook Express\msimn.exe" /newsurl:"%1"
</cmd_output>

So, now, guessing that the switches used by WLM will be the same syntax
that OE uses, let's try creating a shortcut (actually modifying the one
on the Desktop) with:

"F:\Program Files\Windows Live\Mail\wlmail.exe" /newsurl:news://msnews.microsoft.com/

Yes! That works just the way it does in OE.

Also, it makes clear that I could use that if I wanted to open a specific newsgroup.

Totally by accident--there were a few typos before reaching the previous
success <w>--I discovered that this works too and if you only have one news server
it will be easier to code into a shortcut:

"F:\Program Files\Windows Live\Mail\wlmail.exe" /news

I actually tried /newsonly first (the equivalent switch used by OE to avoid
having it as an E-mail client, ref. KB177233) but it didn't work.

Thanks for making me find this! ; )

Robert Aldwinckle
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