You mentioned that the Mail icon is not present in the Control Panel. Do you
have TweakUI installed? If so, check to see if it's hiding it.
Is your system a standalone workstation or are you on a LAN? If the latter case,
are you using an Exchange server? Or check with the LAN Admin to see if any
global restrictions are hiding the Mail icon.
If none of the above apply, the following article,
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;312354 , outlines a fix
to create a new profile as follows:
RESOLUTION:
To resolve this behavior, create a new profile:
1. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
2. Double-click the Mail icon.
3. In the Mail Setup dialog box, click Show Profiles.
If you want to be able to select a specific profile each time you start
Outlook, click the General tab, click Prompt for a profile to be used, and then
click Add.
4. In the New Profile dialog box, under Profile Name, type a descriptive
name for the new profile, and then click OK.
5. In the E-mail Accounts dialog box, select Add a new e-mail account in
the e-mail options, and then click Next.
6. Click the type of server that your e-mail account works with, and then
click Next.
7. Complete all of the required fields, including those that are on the
tabs that appear after you click More Settings.
8. When you finish providing the required information, click Finish.
Here's what it says to do in lieu of accessing the Mail icon:
If you right-click the Microsoft Outlook icon on your desktop and then click
Properties, the Mail Setup dialog box appears. You can add a new profile by
following Steps 3 through 8 in the Resolution section.
Good luck!