Outlook IMAP configuration APIs

Guys,

I need to configure Outlook to access an IMAP store provider programmatically.

I would have a new property sheet in the Tools->Options  dlg and would like to configure a new IMAP store provider for the user to use.
I know we could do using a PRF file but when I tried to configure one using the sample PRF file I found, outlook never populated it automatically ( I set the registry to automatically load a PRF file on startup). It just threw the configuration wizard up for me to fil in the details.
Is there a way that I can automatically (using APIs) configure outlook to add a new IMAP account instead of using a PRF file?

Also, is there a way to hook onto outlook to receive notifications? I would like to be notified whenever the connection to the exchange server fails.

Any links that can help in this would also be great!!

Thanks in advance,
Cheers