I cannot open Outlook. It begins and then i get the following error message: Cannot open your default e-mail folders. The file name .ost cannot be accessed. You must connect to Microsoft Exchange once before you can use your Outlook data file (.ost). Now, I have no idea what this means. I have a hotmail account and in the past when I would open outlook I would see the e-mails from this account. I am not computer savy (my late husband set this up) and I am a bit lost.

Since you aren't connecting to an Exchange server, you might want to post this in the Outlook Forum: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/outlook/threads Ed Crowley MVP "There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems."

Hi, I suppose you can create a new email account and give it a shot. Here's the instruction: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/829918 During this you need to know your account information so that you can achieve configuration and connect to exchange server.Best Regards!