Need help in installing RSSOwl

[sri]

I downloaded the latest RSSOwl RSS reader from http://www.rssowl.org/node/251

Upon clicking RSSOwl.exe to install it, get the following:



I do have the latest Java installed.





Any idea how to fix this?

[40hz]

I suspect RSSOwl's installer has a problem with the installed version of the JRE, and is ignoring the Java 6 update  Not every Java update replaces the JRE that got installed with the SDK.

Try downloading a copy of JavaRa from http://raproducts.org. First have it check for (and install) any updates. Once that's finished, have it remove any older versions of Java. That should clear up the problem.

JavaRa is a simple tool that does a simple job: it removes old and redundant versions of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). Simply select "Check for Updates" or "Remove Older Version" to begin. JavaRa is free under the GNU GPL version two.

If that doesn't work, you could try uninstalling all your Java instals and updates manually using Revo. Then download and install a fresh copy of the JRE from here:

https://cds.sun.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/CDS-CDS_Developer-Site/en_US/-/USD/ViewProductDetail-Start?ProductRef=jre-6u15-oth-JPR@CDS-CDS_Developer

If you do actually need the full SDK, you can also get that from Sun's website.

[sri]

Thanks 40hz.

JavaRa removed the old version, j2re1.4.2_13 & its related files and RSSOwl installer worked fine.

[40hz]

Thanks 40hz.

JavaRa removed the old version, j2re1.4.2_13 & its related files and RSSOwl installer worked fine.

Bingo! Glad it worked out for you.

[Nod5]

sri, can you post your impressions after using the latest RSSOwl. I haven't tried it in a while. I'm still using GreatNews but I'm moving as soon as I find something responsive and minimal GUI wise AND more powerful in other respects.

[Shades]

It could also be that sri's problem was that the first mentioning of Java in the PATH variable was the 1.4.2 version. Oh what a fun you can have with an up-to-date Eclipse IDE and installing the Oracle 9 client software. 

Suddenly you go back to using Java 1.3 as the installer puts this version of Java as first entry in the PATH variable from Windows. A simple swap from the Java versions was the fix in my case.

 

[sri]

So far I am liking RSSOwl compared to FeedDemon. It is small, feels light-weight and works nicely.

My observations/notes on RSSOwl:

- Customizable keyboard shortcuts is a good feature.

(To add a) New Feed: Default is Ctrl+D with scope set to "In Windows"
I changed it to Ctrl+N and 'In RSSOwl'

'Mark All Read' seems confusing at first. It means mark all the current feed items as read and NOT all feeds as read. The default is Ctrl+Shift+C and 'In Windows'. I changed it to Ctrl+R and 'In RSSOwl'.

To update current feed: Ctrl+U

To update all feeds Ctrl+Shift+U.

To assign label (i.e., tagging) to a feed item: Ctrl+L

- By default each feed opens in a new tab. This makes no sense. To disable this, View -> Layout -> (deselect) Tabbed Browsing.

- By default 'Show All News' is set. I find it better to change it to 'Unread News'. This is a one time setting change and thankfully applies to all the feeds.

- By default feeds don't update when the program is started. Not good. Go to Prefs, Feeds -> (tick) Automatically update feeds on start-up.

- One nice feature is to be able to select the feeds to be notified of.

@Shades: I did modify the PATH variable to reflect the path to latest version's bin folder before using JavaRa.

[Nod5]

Thanks, very helpful.