Outlook Email Recovery

Since Outlook is no longer available, I need an alternative email client. I can't install Windows Live since I'm using XP. I do have Microsoft's Office Outlook, but I can't get it to work. I followed the instructions word for word from Microsoft, but it's just a no-go.When I had Outlook, I would move the emails I wanted to keep in folders I created under the Local Folders. I must have 1 000's of emails backed up. I want to go through them and delete what I don't want/need anymore, but can't because

1. I never got the Import Messages working in Outlook [it keeps telling me that the program is in use and therefore can't import

2. Outlook no longer works anyway and

3. although I downloaded Thunderbird, it won't even put in the folders I created while actually logged into Hotmail [not even the Sent or Junk folders that are there by default], let alone the ones I created in the Local Folder in Outlook.

A lot of the emails I've saved I really need. They're ones sent to me after signing up with a forum or site and have my username and password in them.How can I recover these emails so that I can forward them to an email account so that I can not only view them and copy out all the usernames and passwords, but also so I can delete the ones I no longer need?I'm running Windows XP Home Edition and Outlook Express is 6.00.2900.2180.