I got the same problem that OE did not loaded down the email. This happended because I had more then one email accounts. I errased all the accounts exept the hotmail. Then OE was able to load down the files. After that I entered the other accounts again and it worked.
You can also make a new identity. Go to Files and then to Identity and make e new one. Enter your hotmail account and then klick on the account in the folders on the left and OE will load down. If you want to transfer the email: first copy the mails in explorer to a new directory and the import in OE from that new directory. Under options> maintance>store folders you can define the folder you want to store the emails.