VB calls Outlook Express

Hello everyone

I've got to develope a task in which i nedd to communicate my vb program with Outlook Express. I need in first place to be able to read the accounts registered on this program and also to insert a button in the task bar or add an item menu into it, that calls a simple routine of my program. Oh, and if it's possible i'd like to detect when the user is trying to check mails.

If anyone has an idea of how to do any of this, i would appreciate your help

Thank you very much