How I want to use iCloud + my PC, help/look for answers here

Question

Howdy all, I will be updating this if i manage to fix my problems
So I love my iPad, and I will soon get an iphone. But regardless of those purchases, I still have a PC and I will continue using it.
But I love my iPad as my main personal organizer, (contacts, calendar, etc). So I want to be able to use my iPad to update stuff and have my contacts, calendar, and purchases apply to my PC as well as my future iPhone. Since apple devices sync my easily, I decided to make this discussion to help others as well as my self set up apple to windows related things.
And please, back up your device before anything, just incase.
I am using:
Windows 7 home edition 64bit
iTunes 10
iPad IOS 5
Outlook 2010
I don't think I have to list anything else, but if I do, just ask!
So what I am trying to do -
PLEASE TELL ME IF I AM WRONG, Thats the point me doing this
Apps - This part is DONE
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH1620?viewlocale=en_US
So, you have to turn the MUSIC, APPs, BOOKS on through iTunes(PC) as well as your devices. So now, buying apps, as long as you devices/PC has your account logged in, it should apply my purchase to all of them at once.
Book Marks- This part is DONE
I like to use chrome. But to sync them together, I exported all of my Chrome bookmarks,  and shoved it into Safari, it seemed easier than using IE.
I then synced my ipad's book marks into Safari. Now Safari, on my PC, contains ALL of my iPad and Chrome book marks. I then exported the bookmarks from safari and imported it into Chrome. A bit longer and annoying, but it worked.
So from now on, all Chrome bookmarks on my PC will have to be added to Safari. And my iPad bookmarks, will require me to carry it from Safari to Chrome.
Photos - This part is DONE
So, in my own opinion, Photo stream is stupid.  All this is, is Dropbox for pictures.
On a PC, after setting it up, it will give you a Photo Stream Folder. ANY pictures you put into Photo Stream Folder will be on photo stream and sync to all of your devices that have it turned on. But, in order to KEEP this picture, you must save each one or else it will auto delete in 30 days.
But, any photo that you take SHOULD automatically download into your PC. Which will also require you to save the photos into a different folder.
My boss at work figured this part out. IN ORDER TO ERASE photos off of photo stream, you will have to reset photo stream, which will kill the cloud distrubution of the pictures to each device, and erase those pictures on the cloud. Then you have to delete it off each device.
We believe that apple will change this. I mean, its kind of pointless if you can erase the pictures.
This part is where I had to use Outlook 2010.
Please note, This is a brand new outlook, I do not care about anything previously inside and there is nothing for me to erase or lose
eMails - This part is DONE
So the point of this part is to sync your iPad mails with your Outlook 2010. I don't use this, because I still prefer to go to each of my 3 individual email accounts to send mail. If I were out and about, I would be accessing each email through the website or my iPad, so I do not see the point in setting up the email sync.
But in order to use eMail, contact, calendar sync with Outlook, I had to make a default account. I HAVE NO CLUE what that means, but the error was this
"Setup can not continue becuase outlook isnt configured to have a defualt profile. Check your outlook settings and try again."
So find the settings a set a default account. IF you wanted to set the account to your @me.com account, then you will have to connect that email to outlook. But, it WONT WORK! I used these settings
p99-imap.mail.me.com  > incoming
p99-smtp.mail.me.com  > outgoing
check remember password and SPA
then go to "more settings" > "Advanced" tab and enter
For IMAP  Port :"993" or just choose SSL from the encrytion dropdown
For SMTP Port : "587" and choose Auto from the encrytion dropdown. (do not choose SSL)
then goto outgoing server tab
check first box ...SMTP
Provided by https://discussions.apple.com/message/16351758#16351758
Calendar - This part is PARTIALLY DONE
My original Calendar was on Gmail, I synced my calendar from my gmail to my iPad. But with the new iCloud, I want it to all be on the cloud. I think I can sync the iCloud's calendar into outlook, but I cannot push my calendar from Outlook into iCloud.
So ON my iPad, I did a list view, and clicked on each event (thank god I only had 6 months worth of stuff, and changed it from my gmail calendar to save onto my ipad. So then since the events are now saved onto my iPad, I pushed that into the iCloud.
Now all that is left to do is to PUSH my iCloud Calendar into my Outlook. So then when I update stuff, it will show up on my PC.
But with the iCloud Control Panel, I cannot sync my Calendar. I keep getting this error
"Setup can not continue becuase outlook isnt configured to have a defualt profile. Check your outlook settings and try again."
I have no clue what to do
Contacts - This part is PARTIALLY DONE
I am still working with this, but that error like the one above is still there as well.
But with the iCloud Control Panel, I cannot sync my Calendar. I keep getting this error
"Setup can not continue becuase outlook isnt configured to have a defualt profile. Check your outlook settings and try again."

Answer 1

@Naiks, having suffered through unsuccessful synching attempts for Calendar and Contacts myself, l would suggest you try the following:
UNINSTALL iCloud control panel from your PC. Seems silly, but do it.
Go into Outlook, and look at the very top menu. Click FILE, then ACCOUNT SETTINGS, then click the popup box.
You will see a list of all your email accounts. Make sure that ONE of them has a checkmark against it. If not, select the account your want as your default, and click "set as default.
Exit out of Outlook and reboot your machine.
Now reinstall iCloud, check CALENDAR and CONTACTS, and do as instructed when prompted.
Reboot for good luck and now launch OUTLOOK. All that remains is to locate your iCloud Contacts and Calendar files, and make them your default.
IMPORTANT: Don't panic if you can't find your contacts -- they're there. Click CONTACTS and you'll see you have several available contact files. Locate the one label "iCloud" in grey type. Right-click on it, select PROPERTIES, then click the Outlook Address Book tab. Check the box that says something like "Make this my default Outlook Address Book." Keep clicking "apply" and "okay" until you've exited out of the dialog box maze.
You may have to do something similar with your Calendar files. I dd not, but if you need to, do it.
Everything should now sync pretty seamlessly.
I didn't have the exact same problem as you, but my dilemma was close enough. Good luck!
Arthur P. Johnson