Jared,
< snip >
>Hope that made SOME sense ;-P
>Just thought I'd post my approach for constructive criticism, support, and/or to help direct others w/ possibly the same questions.
>
Sure it did. BTW, I'd like to thank my buddy John for jumping here and helping you get the situation straightened out. As I mentioned earlier, I've little or no experience with previous versions of Outlook, so, as they say, "I only know what I read in the paper".< g >

For comparison here's how I would do it:

* The file has a registered Outlook extension
lnhandle =  FCREATE('SAMPLE.MSG')
= FCLOSE(lnhandle)
* 260 is the current value of MAX_PATH
lcbuffer = SPACE(260)
DECLARE INTEGER FindExecutable IN SHELL32 ;
  STRING @lpFile, STRING @lpDirectory, ;
  STRING @lpResults
lnresult = FindExecutable(@lcfile, "", @lcbuffer)
IF lnresult > 0
  lnpt = AT(CHR(0), lcbuffer)
  lcbuffer = LEFT(lcbuffer, lnpt - 1)
  RUN /N &lcbuffer && And Outlook runs.
ENDIF

BTW, I'd delete the SAMPLE.MSG too.