Why I'm Dumping Outlook 2007 as an RSS Reader
I continue to have some kind of ill-conceived hope that Microsoft will finally do something properly and thoughtfully. I guess I was wrong to think that Microsoft could build something as simple as an RSS reader into their latest iteration of Outlook. I'm stuck with Office 2007 at work--the wonderful "let's reinvent the menus" Office. I've been somewhat satisfied with the RSS reader until now.
The first issue I come across is delayed feed updates. Every so often, the RSS feed just doesn't update. No errors to explain it away. It just becomes temperamental. This results in my browsing the website to catch up on what wasn't downloaded. It's only a little irritating. I could probably chalk it up to flaky Internet at work, even though our Internet has mission-critical stability. Perhaps it's just the proxy or domain controller.
The second issue, the big kicker, is proxy authentication. When you're behind a proxy firewall and you decide to add a new feed, Outlook has the sense to ask you for proxy authentication if it hasn't figured it out already. Obviously you enter your password and remember it so you don't have to log into 50 things on start-up. Unfortunately, remembering your password seems to mean remember it forever without ever second-guessing it.
Our work policy is that you must change your password every 90 days. You would think that your RSS feeds would try to log in and thus ask for your password again. Wrong. It continues to remain convinced that your password from 90 days ago is the correct one. It remains so convinced of this that it will lock your account out because it will try until everything else comes crashing down around you.
I have found no known easy solution except to delete and re-create your RSS feeds. When doing that, it finally asks for a new password for the proxy. Then the process resumes for the next 90 days. Obviously this is why it has taken me a year to hate it.
In light of this problem, I've decided to switch to NewsFox, a Firefox add-on. Not only has it more accurately displayed the contents of my RSS feeds, but it also has easy settings for deleting old items, and it prioritizes new items. Being part of the browser also saves a massive lag when asking to view the web article linked to the item.
My only gripe so far is that when you open it, it opens in the current tab rather than a new tab. Also, you can't close the preview pane. Hopefully this works out better than Outlook. Outlook's RSS Reader is clearly an after-thought--Oh yeah, email is suppose to have RSS support now. Lets put this garbage in here and call it a day.
The first issue I come across is delayed feed updates. Every so often, the RSS feed just doesn't update. No errors to explain it away. It just becomes temperamental. This results in my browsing the website to catch up on what wasn't downloaded. It's only a little irritating. I could probably chalk it up to flaky Internet at work, even though our Internet has mission-critical stability. Perhaps it's just the proxy or domain controller.
The second issue, the big kicker, is proxy authentication. When you're behind a proxy firewall and you decide to add a new feed, Outlook has the sense to ask you for proxy authentication if it hasn't figured it out already. Obviously you enter your password and remember it so you don't have to log into 50 things on start-up. Unfortunately, remembering your password seems to mean remember it forever without ever second-guessing it.
Our work policy is that you must change your password every 90 days. You would think that your RSS feeds would try to log in and thus ask for your password again. Wrong. It continues to remain convinced that your password from 90 days ago is the correct one. It remains so convinced of this that it will lock your account out because it will try until everything else comes crashing down around you.
I have found no known easy solution except to delete and re-create your RSS feeds. When doing that, it finally asks for a new password for the proxy. Then the process resumes for the next 90 days. Obviously this is why it has taken me a year to hate it.
In light of this problem, I've decided to switch to NewsFox, a Firefox add-on. Not only has it more accurately displayed the contents of my RSS feeds, but it also has easy settings for deleting old items, and it prioritizes new items. Being part of the browser also saves a massive lag when asking to view the web article linked to the item.
My only gripe so far is that when you open it, it opens in the current tab rather than a new tab. Also, you can't close the preview pane. Hopefully this works out better than Outlook. Outlook's RSS Reader is clearly an after-thought--Oh yeah, email is suppose to have RSS support now. Lets put this garbage in here and call it a day.