Is there a way to alter Outlook's taskbar icon so that it will reflect new
Inbox items, the way that Gmail's taskbar icon does? (For a side-by-side
screenshot jpg of what I'm asking about, see <a
href="http://eric.hawaiistories.googlepages.com/outlooktaskbaricon">this
page</a>.)

I keep both Outlook and Gmail open almost all the time. When a new Gmail
message arrives I can tell immediately, even if I'm running a different
application full-screen, because the Gmail taskbar icon changes. However, I
can't do the same for Outlook -- to check on my Outlook inbox, I need to
switch to Outlook.

I know there are many Outlook add-ons that will give new-message alerts by
doing popup windows, or by adding an extra sidebar to my screen. I don't want
those because they are either just temporary popups or they take up extra
screen real estate that I don't want to give up. I want to utilize the
existing Outlook taskbar icon, which is already there and only displays the
current folder. (NB: My office still uses Outlook 2000. If a newer version of
Outlook does this, then I will switch my effort on this topic over and add
them to my parallel ongoing effort to convince management to upgrade to
Office 2007.)

Thanks!