After many years of being a loyal RSSBandit user, I've jumped ships and started using Outlook 2007 to manage all of my RSS feeds. My only reason is that I'm already using Outlook for so many other functions, and now that we are implementing SharePoint, that list of reasons is growing.
One of the things I did not like about Outlooks' default RSS capabilities, was not being able to see a quick, concise list of the feeds / posts that I have not yet read. Fortunately, there is an easy solution to this: Search Folders.
To create a quick, easy way to view all of the unread posts in your feed list, follow these simple steps:
- Right click on "Search Folders" in the Outlook tree and select "New Search Folder..."

- On the screen that pops up, choose "Create a custom Search Folder" at the bottom of the list:
- Click the "Choose" button for specifying criteria and name your folder
- Click "Browse" to select the folders that you want to search. Unsleect the root "Mailbox" folder, and select the "RSS Feeds" sub-folder. Ensure that "Search subfolders" is selected.
- Click OK to close the "Select Folder(s)" screen. Now click the "Criteria" button, and under the "More Choises" tab, select "Only items that are: ", "unread".
- Click OK to close the criteria screen, click OK to close the Custom Search Folder screen, and Click OK to close the New Search Folder screen. You now have an "Unread RSS" folder in your Search Folders. Drag this item into your "Favorite Folder" list and you are done!
Now your unread RSS feeds are only a button click away! And the great part about this simple solution is that you can create some very specific RSS searches, in additional custom Search Folders. Just follow this process again, only selecting the specific folders that you want.