RSS Café – documentation
RSS Café is a modern, lightweight RSS reader for Windows. Use it to follow your favorite websites and blogs: new items arrive by themselves, you see at a glance what is unread, and a popup in the corner of your screen makes sure you miss nothing. This page explains how to install, use and configure the program.
- Windows 10 or Windows 11 (64-bit).
- The .NET 10 Desktop Runtime. The installer checks for it and points you the way if it is missing.
- An internet connection to fetch feeds and updates.
Standard installation
Start the installer and choose Standard on the installation type page. You then choose whether RSS Café is installed for all users (Program Files) or only for you. You get a Start menu shortcut, optionally a desktop shortcut, and an uninstaller.
Portable installation
Choose Portable and a folder, for example on a USB stick. The program and all its data then live together in that folder (the Data subfolder), nothing is installed in Windows and there is no uninstaller: to remove it, delete the folder. You can also have a portable installation next to a regular one.
Updating
See Updates. The program can look for a new version by itself. An update runs through the same installer; your settings and items are kept.
Uninstalling
Uninstall a standard installation through Windows (Settings → Apps). Your data in %APPDATA%\RSSCafe stays, so you have it back after a new installation. If RSS Café was set to start with Windows, that entry is removed when you uninstall.
Adding and organizing feeds
On the left is the tree with your feeds and folders. Create them with Feeds → New feed… and New folder…; with a right-click you can rename, delete, disable them or edit the Properties… (name, address, folder, icon, and optionally a username and password for feeds with HTTP Basic login). Move feeds and folders by dragging them. A disabled feed is no longer refreshed, but its items stay.
Already have feeds in another reader? Choose File → Import feeds… to load an OPML file (for example from RSS Guard or QuiteRSS). With Export feeds… you save your feeds as OPML again.
Reading items
Top right is the list of items, below it a preview of the selected item. Double-click an item to open the full article in your default browser. Click a column header to sort. With the Filters button you show only read or unread items, or a period. Turn the article preview on or off via View → Article preview.
With the Mark as read button you mark items as read or unread; you can select several at once. Mark all as read in the Feeds menu does so for all items shown.
Searching
Press Ctrl+F to search in title, content and author, in the selection or everywhere. Ctrl+U switches “Unread only” on or off.
Tray and popup
With the tray icon on, you see the number of unread items there. Right-click the icon for the menu (Open RSS Café, Mark all as read, Show latest items, Exit). New items bring up a popup; click an item to open it, or Mark all as read to tick them all off at once.
Cleaning up
With Tools → Clean up… you delete old items: choose which (read, unread or all), how old, from which feeds, and optionally containing which words. You see how many items are affected and have to confirm. Deleting cannot be undone.
Keys
| Key | Does |
|---|
| Ctrl+F | Search |
| Ctrl+U | Show unread only / show all |
| F1 | Open this documentation (in the settings window: the section for the tab you are viewing) |
Open the window via Tools → Settings…. At the bottom right is a Help button (also F1) that opens this page at the section for the tab you are viewing. Changes apply after OK.
General tab
| Setting | Explanation |
|---|
| Interface language | Dutch and English are built in; other languages come from separate language files (German is included). Switching works immediately. |
| Show a tray icon with the number of unread items | Turns the icon next to the clock on or off. |
| Minimize the main window to the tray when minimizing | Minimizing removes RSS Café from the taskbar; you open it again via the tray icon. |
| Minimize the main window to the tray when closing | The X then does not exit the program but hides it in the tray. Exit via File → Exit or the tray menu. Only works when the tray icon is on. |
| Start RSS Café when I sign in to Windows | The program starts with Windows and stays hidden in the tray (when the tray icon is on). Not available for a portable installation. |
| Clean up read items older than (days) | Happens at startup; 0 means never. Unread items are always kept. |
| Export / import settings | Save your settings to a file or load them back. Imported settings only apply after OK. |
| Open data folder | Opens the folder with your settings and database, see Where is my data? |
Refreshing tab
| Setting | Explanation |
|---|
| Refresh all feeds automatically every (minutes) | How often all feeds are fetched; 0 means never automatically. |
| Refresh when the program starts | Fetches new items right away at every start. |
You can always refresh manually with the Refresh button or Refresh all. Feeds that gave an error while refreshing are marked with a warning sign; click the warning box in the status bar for details.
| Setting | Explanation |
|---|
| Show a popup for new items | Turns the popup on or off. |
| The popup stays visible (seconds) | 0 means until you close it. |
| Popup position on the screen | Choose a corner of the screen. |
| Screen for the popup | Handy with several screens: the primary screen, the screen of the main window or a specific screen. |
| Sound when a popup appears | No sound, the Windows notification sound, RSS Café’s own tone or your own .wav file. |
| When you click an item in the popup | Open the article in the default browser or show it in RSS Café. |
| Make the popup scrollable | With more items than fit, you can scroll in the popup. |
| Test popup | Immediately shows a sample popup with your current settings. |
Theme tab
Choose the theme (colors and icons) here, open the themes folder, or save the selected theme as a file. See Themes. With “Color the title bar to match the theme” you decide whether the title bar of the main window follows the theme color.
Updates tab
RSS Café can check by itself whether there is a new version.
| Setting | Explanation |
|---|
| Check for a new version at startup | At every start (in the background) it checks whether a newer version exists. You only see a window if there is something to report. |
| Also look for beta versions | Also shows test versions (beta). They can be unstable. |
| Also look for alpha versions | Shows all versions, including alphas and betas. Alpha versions are the least stable. These are test versions; you can turn this off at any time. |
| Check now… | Checks right away (also via Help → Check for updates…). |
The update window shows the version you are using, the result of the check and a progress bar, with the buttons Close and Check. If there is a new version, the buttons Download and Changelog appear as well. With Download, RSS Café fetches the installer and then asks whether to start it now; the program exits itself for that. If you choose No, you see where the file is (with a link to the folder), so you can start the installer yourself later. The changelog shows what is new.
An update keeps your settings and items. If you use a portable installation, the update is placed in the same folder.
Beta and alpha versions are test versions. You can turn them off at any time, but going back to an older version does not happen by itself.
Choose and edit themes via Tools → Themes…. Light and Dark are built in; you can copy them to a theme of your own and then adjust colors, fonts, the menu icons and the popup. A theme of your own is a .json file in the themes folder; with Theme import / export you bring in themes from others or share yours.
- Standard installation:
%APPDATA%\RSSCafe (settings, database, themes and language files).
- Portable: the
Data folder next to the program. If you put a folder Data or a file portable.txt next to RSSCafe.exe yourself, the program also works portably.
Under Settings → General → Open data folder you find the folder directly. Feed passwords are stored encrypted.
7. Frequently asked questions ↑ back to top
The program does not start
Check that the .NET 10 Desktop Runtime is installed. Without it, RSS Café does not start.
A feed gives an error
Click the warning box in the status bar for the message per feed. Usually the address has changed or the site is temporarily unreachable. Check the address via Properties…. For protected feeds, enter the username and password there.
The X does not exit the program
Then “Minimize the main window to the tray when closing” is on. Exit via File → Exit or right-click the tray icon and choose Exit.
Starting with Windows does not work for my portable version
That is intentional: with a portable installation the path can change (for example a different USB drive letter), so the option is disabled there.
The update check reports an error
Check your internet connection. If it keeps failing, you can always download the latest installer manually from the website.
This documentation was written by Claude (Anthropic), based on RSS Café 0.16.2 BETA, on October 28, 2026.
