What happens if you go to 'Control Panel|Mail|Data Files' and click the
"Add" button? The error indicates you don't have a Personal Folders (.PST)
file, and the "Add" button will let you create one.

Hal
--
Hal Hostetler, CPBE --
Senior Engineer/MIS -- MS MVP-Print/Imaging -- WA7BGX
http://www.kvoa.com -- "When News breaks, we fix it!"
KVOA Television, Tucson, AZ. NBC Channel 4
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"Arnaud Miege" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I have recently installed Outlook 2003 on my machine (win XP SP2), and
every
time I try to start it it gives me the following error message:

"Unable to open your default e-mail folders. Outlook could not start
because
a data file to send and receive mail could not be found. To add a data
file,
such as a personal folder file, double-click the Mail icon in Windows
Control Panel"

So I go to the Windows Control Panel, double-click the Mail icon, I click
on
data files, Add... I only have one choice (Business Contact Manager
Database), so I click OK, and it gives me the following error message:

An exception occurred while trying to run

"C:\WINDOWS\system32\shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL"C: \PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\System\
MSMAPI\1033\MLCFG32.CPL",@0"

I did some searching on the internet, but couldn't find any solution to
this. Can anybody help? I should point out that when asked to set up a
mail
account the first time I opened up Outlook, I said no (and I don't want to
set up an email account).

Many thanks in advance,

Arnaud