Use Windows Live Mail to read RSS feeds in Windows Vista


Posted by Brandon LeBlanc on Sunday, August 19, 2007 10:41 PM 8 Comments

A lot of people ask me what my RSS feed reader is. They are usually shocked when I say Windows Live Mail. That's right. Windows Live Mail is my main RSS feed reader. Let me explain.

Windows Live Mail utilizes the IE7 RSS feed store in Windows Vista. Internet Explorer 7 brings fourth the Windows RSS Platform. The Windows RSS Platform introduces a Common Feed List in which Windows Live Mail takes advantage of. Read about the Windows RSS Platform here from Walter, Program Manager on the IE Team. Nick blogged back in September of Newsgator taking advantage of the Common Feed List just like Windows Live Mail does today. The Windows RSS Platform is designed in such a way that developers can create apps that read, add, and delete from the Common Feed List. Windows Live Mail taps into the Common Feeds List allowing you to read manage and read your RSS feeds. Any feed subscribed to in IE7 automatically appears in Windows Live Mail.

Your RSS feeds are displayed in separate tab in Windows Live Mail. It is easy to bounce between your email and your RSS feeds. They are separate so that your email and RSS feeds aren't jumbled together.

In the current beta of Windows Live Mail, you get a group of Search Folders at the top left-hand corner of the application above your first email account. You can add a variety of Search Folders for quick access to a variety of things like unread email or flagged items.

I have a Search Folder added for "Unread feeds". This will display any unread feeds that come in. I changed the default update schedule for all my RSS feeds from 1 day to 1 hour. Every hour, my RSS feeds are updated and my "Unread feeds" Search Folder displays them for me with the number of unread feeds. This is how I keep track of my news and what everyone is saying out in the community.

When someone posts about something that grabs my attention but I want to look at it again later on, Windows Live Mail lets me quickly "flag" that post (you can flag new posts in RSS, email messages, and newsgroup posts). When I flag a post, it then appears under my "Flagged items" Search Folder I can then look at later on. Anything you flag will appear here which really helps me prioritize emails, updated feeds, and newsgroup posts.

Windows Live Mail gives the user all they need to manage their RSS feeds by utilizing the Common Feed List built in to Windows Vista through the Windows RSS Platform. It works great for me in managing all 450 of my RSS feeds I'm subscribed to (I recently scaled back the amount of feeds I read).

You can download the latest beta of Windows Live Mail here.

If you're interested in what Microsoft is doing with RSS, you can head over to the Microsoft RSS Blog to get the latest from the folks at Microsoft working on RSS technologies such as the Windows RSS Platform.

AUG 20
 

Posted by Nazul

I'm been using Windows Live Mail and I think it's great.

But in the new build I cann't find and old feature that let me import my friends Windows Live Spaces feeds to my RSS Feeds.

I hope this feature returns in a future build.
AUG 20
 

Posted by dalangalma

This looks great! Some missing features prevent it from becoming my new default though:

1) OPML import/export. Yeah, I know I can do it through IE7, but that's still silly.

2) Feed favicons. I like how FeedReader/RSS Bandit will show the icons for different feeds.

3) A quick way to go through new feed items. In FeedReader or RSS Bandit I can just keep hitting spacebar to navigate through my unread feeds. Even with the setting to mark messages read immediately, and the uncomfortable Ctrl+U keyboard shortcut, it's not quite the same - it can "skip" messages.

4) It looks like embedded Flash videos don't play.
AUG 21
 

Posted by Victoria

The new version beta Windows Live Mail works great.  It would be nice to be able to use the favorites tool bar from Outlook.
SEP 19
 

Posted by Sarah In Tampa

It may come as a surprise to you, but there is a free, built-in RSS reader in Windows Vista. Haven't noticed it yet? It's the feed reader that's available in Vista's Windows Live Mail. Windows Live Mail, designed to be the replacement for Outlook Express
SEP 19
 

Posted by Noticias externas

It may come as a surprise to you, but there is a free, built-in RSS reader in Windows Vista. Haven't
DEC 15
 

Posted by Sarah In Tampa

It may come as a surprise to you, but there is a free, built-in RSS reader in Windows Vista. Haven't noticed it yet? It's the feed reader that's available in Vista's Windows Live Mail. Windows Live Mail utilizes the Internet Explorer 7 RSS feed store
FEB 29
 

Posted by Ignacio

Hi!, does anyone knows how to uninstall windows mail?...i'm using windows live mail rigth now. If anyone can help me...thanks!
MAR 08
 

Posted by greggerca

Hey, I don't know if you'll see this comment on this ancient post, but I've been using WLM as my RSS reader in Vista for a while.  

It seems I can't keep RSS items longer than 30 days.  I usually save posts I'm going to review later and delete the ones I am done with.  I read about 100 feeds, so I can't possibly remember all the crap I saw.

I notice that once in a while when I open IE 7, I come back to Windows Live Mail and most of my older, read RSS items are gone.  This really sucks.

Is there some way to change this behavior?  I'm not storing a lot of feed posts (under 20 per feed or something).

We share a last name BTW!

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