Microsoft Office XP problems?

[meblumen]

I have a Dell Inspiron E1705 laptop. I'm running XP with service pack 2, and just recently installed Office XP. Everything appears to be working fine except Outlook. Outlook express functions fine but when I try to open Outlook it says "Unable to open default email folders. Try again". Then it prompts me to hit ok which I do which brings up another alert which says "Would you like to open your File System instead?". If I hit no, it closes the program, if I hit yes, it goes to the program but I can't really do anything and after a minute or so it ends up crashing or looping through the same set of error messages. Can someone please tell me how to by pass these errors so I can configure my email services?

[glc]

Outlook XP - Error: "Unable to Open Default Email Folder"

This document explains what you need to do if you cannot open your default e-mail folder in Outlook XP.
SYMPTOM
After installing Outlook XP and trying to launch it, an error similiar to "... unable to open your default e-mail folder." is displayed
CAUSE
Outlook is trying launch using a profile that is blank or invalid in some fashion.
SOLUTION
Open the Control Panel.
Double-click on the Mail icon.
Click on the Show Profiles... button.



Click on the Add button.
The New Profile window is displayed.



Type in a name for the profile, any name will do.
Click OK.
Select Add a new email account and click Next.