Hi Evelin--
I suspect you're using the very low end never improved, often buggy web
html interface for these groups. It's tended by people at Redmond often
contracted out to 3rd party orange badge companies like Volt, who have very
fine employees and some less fine etc. or tended by people in MSFT
Communities whatever their teams or product managers are called --you can
bet it will usually be non-intuitive because Redmond MSFT loves
non-intuitive--it's congenitally in their blood if menus in Windows are any
indication whatsoever or the way they make Windows Explorer's shell gui and
menus are.
Stop using it.
You didn't say, but I'm going to take a very prescient guess and assume
you're viewing this with a PC using a Windows OS either the one they call XP
or the one they call Vista--two funny names but one more thing I can't
change but would have.
In a way though the name Vista is appropriate because it describes the
mediocrity that I'm looking at right now.
I would like you to use an NNTP News Reader.
http://www.newsreaders.com/win/clients.html
MSFT allows you to reach a free one. If you're using Vista, simply click on
Win Mail in the start menu are type the cmd msimn in your run box. A nice
feature in Vista Win Mail is that you then go over to the left and click the
category "Microsoft Communities" and click it and it will link you to the
groups in a list. They could be grouped better, but again I think the
people who put these groups on are extremely lazy--one wonders wth they do
all day with themselves at Redmond, but they do have a primitive search and
much better features then the eggregiously horrendous thing that the
Communities put on the web.
If you're in Vista, once you click Microsoft Communities, then just type in
the key word for the group you want to subscribe to. It would be great if
they headed them in groups by country as they do some things on their sites,
but no they never thought of that so they just mix 'em up so if you're in
English you have to look for the groups that don't have some two or three
letter abbreviation for a country. This is silly and non-intuitive and time
consuming but silly is MSFT and MSFT is silly, time consuming and often
non-intuitive.
Subscribe to the ones you want.
You asked about searching them. On the tool bar you will have Edit>find and
you can use key words to search your topic. This is considerablly better
than the totally crappy web interface I believe you use now. The web
interface has also double posted with a bug Microsoft hasn't cared to fix
for years.
You can also arrange things a number of ways. You can right click the name
for the groups Microsoft Communities and control how you want the posts
updated by clicking "synronize"
After you subscribe to a group, you can click on subject and arrange the
order they're listed in or you can click on from/sent/size and arrange them
the way you like.
See .jpeg
http://www.microsoft.com/mspress/books/sampchap/5021/073561282X-13.gif
Try a couple of the first hits here:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=How+to+Use+Microsoft+NNTP+News+Reader
If you're using XP then here are instructions on how to configure the NNTP
newsreader rather than use the clunky, dysfunctional web based reader.
Instructions:
http://rickrogers.org/setupoe.htm (same in Windows Mail as it
is with Outlook Express)
How To Set up Newsgroups in OE
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm
1 Minute Setup of OE with Screen Shots to read Groups:
How to Setup OE to Read/Download MSFT Specialty Newsgroups:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/using/howto/oe/gettingnews.mspx
Accessing Newsgroups With Outlook Express
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/accessing_newsgroup_with_outlook.htm
How To Set Up OE Newsgroups from MSFT
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/using/howto/oe/gettingnews.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/newsgroupsetup.mspx
I wish I wish whomever is responsible for these things would come here and
do a big runway walk and a turnaround. Open yourself up for feedback which
MSFT hates. MSFT paradoxically always says we "love" feedback. They hate
feedback and it shows because they won't fix most of what everyone tells
them is broken. Look at their dysfunctional arrogant EULA for Vista. Look
at their dysfunctional Kill Switch SPP in Vista that like many things the
tough arrogant people at Redmond MSFT are having fixed for them soon in the
courts. The truth is much of what MSFT does to abuse people gets corrected
in Federal Court or the European Union and they hire the legal staff capable
of hemorrhaging as much of their stockholder money as possible. In a way
the show that General Counsel Brad Smith and Deputy General Counsel Nancy
Anderson have been orchestrating the last two years is a legal Kabuki
theatre and a satire on how to litigate. But while he seems penny pinching
in many respects, Steve Ballmer seems to be content to let it continue.
That money they lose could go a long way towards helping the Gates
Foundation mobilize to get a handle on HIV and work toward the vaccine they
will eventually come up with hopefully.
Good luck,
CH
