Default email client Outlook 2011 not working

Need help configuring Mac email client (Outlook 2011) to be used as default email on Mac and Parallels XP.

The problem I uncovered first was that Windows XP will not use any Mac email client as the default email. When I'm trying to email an Excel (Microsoft Office 2007 running on Parallels), it opens Outlook Express.

On the Mac side, if I try to email a Mac Excel (Microsoft Excel for Mac 2008) using Sent To > Recipient as an Attachment, it says Microsoft Excel was unable to mail your document. Please make sure your mail program is configured correctly and that you can send mail with it.

I am using Outlook 2011 for Mac and successfully able to send and receive email from the app. I still have Entourage loaded and also Mail.app, all of which are configured and work both sending and receiving, but none work trying to email Excel documents from either Mac or Parallels.

I'm running Parallels Desktop 7 with Windows XP on my Macbook Air. I have configured the Mac Mail.app Preferences (Mail> Preferences> General> Default email reader) to use Microsoft Outlook.app (14.1.3). I have also tried setting this to Entourage and Mail.app without success either. I have Parallels Virtual Machine> Configure> Applications Email set to Open In Mac. I have Windows Default Program set to Use My Current Email. I have also tried disabling Outlook Express with no luck.

I tried removing com.apple.LaunchServices.plist from my user library preference folder and allowing it to be recreated, but sill no luck.

Can someone assist? I would really like to use one of the Mac email client as my default email client from Parallels and from Mac.

Thanks,