Wow, such great responses. I had tried everything already, but where I went
wrong was I assumed I should check Yes to the Make OE the default news
reader... Choosing yes seemed to clear the Newsgroup setting in IE under
Tools, Internet Options, Programs tab in IE. Seems counter-intuitive but at
least I'm working again, thanks to you and Uncle Grumpy.
Now if I can only set Word as my email editor, I'll be good to go. Thanks
Jim

"Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]" What@ever wrote in message
...
To get the News command back, go back to the Programs tab in Control Panel |
Internet Options and change the default newsreader to Outlook Express. If
OE prompts you to make it your default newsreader the next time you launch
it, clear the "Always perform this check..." box and then click the No
button.

You may need to reset the Menu Bar and/or restart Outlook and/or reboot your
machine in order to complete the process. Not everyone is reporting success
with this method, but try it and see what happens. If all else fails, you
can always create a desktop shortcut to Outlook Express and include the
/outnews switch -- that gives you the same result as accessing the
newsreader via the News command in Outlook.


--�
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Jim asked:

| More problems.
| I wanted to add the button for "News" to my button bar in Outlook
| 2003.
| I went to Add or Remove Buttons, Customize, Commands. Under the
| Categories column, I selected Go. I then scrolled down the Commands
| list and dragged News up to my button bar.
| Problem is, when I click on the News button it does not launch the
| Outlook Express News Reader (Outlook doesn't have its own news
| reader). Instead it opens a Windows Explorer window at the file
| location:
| C:\Program Files\Common Files\SYSTEM\MSMAPI\1033
| There are files in this folder that look like they may be associated
| with OE, like outex.dll.
| Outlook Express is installed on the computer and I can run it no
| problem by double-clicking its icon.
| Any ideas why it doesn't launch from within Outlook? Any chance this
| is somehow related to the problem I previously reported? (See: "Can't
| set Word as email editor in Outlook 2003)
| Any ideas appreciated.
| Thanks
| Jim