Oops, I forgot to address the Outlook problem... is it just missing or what. I know when I installed Outlook from Office XP Pro it over wrote express, but i didn't like it, and uninstalled the express magically came back (wow something microsoft did right!)
But if that's not it I suggest you repair outlook express with the add/remove prgrams control panel. It's either under windows components or actually under the programs tab ( like everything else) Good luck!