I want to replace or possibly expand my IMAP interface of gmail with Outlook 2003 to use an Outlook.com account and/or Windows Live Mail as my primary internet email provider.

Background:

   I am running Windows 7, and I am still on Outlook 2003 (why pay for an upgrade when it has what I need?), and I have been interfacing with gmail via IMAP, but recently I accidentally ran across WLM and I like the looks of it!  I am less interested in replacing Outlook 2003 with my outlook.com account and/or WLM because I like to move personal/private emails into a private PST file from their origiinal cloud location.

   All I could find in these forums was ways to move a PST file into WLM... maybe my search string wasn't exact enough?

   For now, my "first step" is to replace/augment gmail with my new outlook.com account linked to Outlook 2003 on my laptop. 

In the future:

   Maybe, eventually, I would just move to WLM, although I would need a way to move selected emails to my laptop and out of the cloud. Or perhaps WLM actually allows local folders, just as Outlook does. (Clearly I need some experiments with WLM to make the transition.)

   Also, I make extensive use of Outlook's calendar for events, meetings, and lots (and lots) of reminders, and I keep calendar history (or some items) in a separate PST on my laptop as well. Finally, I do depend a lot on Google Desktop Search that can look in PST data, and I doubt that GDS can chase off into the MSN site to look in WLM data (or is WLM data stored locally, just as with Outlook PST files?)...

Any help/suggestions/pointers, especially for the simple link (POP? IMAP?) between my Outlook.com and Outlook 2003 running on Win7, will be greatly appreciated!