Trish wrote:

Hi Brian, thanks so much for sticking with me on this problem ...
believe me, it is appreciated. OK, here is what I did (several
times). In Control Panel I went to Mail and selected Show Profiles.
I only had Outlook there. I created a new one called Outlook_new. I
made it the default. I then went to Outlook and selected File
Open and selected Outlook.pst which is the Outlook file that contains
all my data. This is when I get all these messages I mentioned
earlier.

Are you saying by "went to Outlook" that you started Outlook and then used
FileOpenOutlook Data File? If so, it will NOT say that the file isn't
associated with a program and that you should choose one, so I still think
I'm failing to understand what you're describing.

Why not use the Data Files button in Control Panel to add the PST to your
mail profile BEFORE you open Outlook? Use the E-mail Accounts button the
Mail applet to make sure your accounts are properly configured and that
you're using the correct PST as the delivery location. Outlook should
behave properly after that.

I also keep getting one of those Microsoft messages saying
Outlook has encountered a problem and needs to close, and gives me
the option to send or not send the problem to Microsoft. When
looking at the .pst files, I notice that every time I tried to create
a new profile, it has added another .pst file, so I have, eg
Outlook2.pst, Outlook3.pst etc.

This is correct. Creating a new mail profile with Outlook 2003 will also
create a new PST. It doesn't matter. Configure the profile to use the
correct PST and delete the others BEFORE opening Outlook.
--
Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]