I finally got Kies to work a couple of weeks ago. Here are the details. No guarantees, of course, but if I could make Kies work with my phone there's hope for world peace (right). Note the Kies version that I used - that's important. Also, don't upgrade Kies 1.5.3.10083_66 or futz with any other buttons in the program. It wasn't broken so I didn't fix it.
- I made sure that any previous version of Kies was gone
- Assured that previous Kies folders were empty
- Searched my registry for the string \kies and deleted all instances
- Installed Kies_1.5.3.10083_66.exe
- Fired up Kies
- Placed USB phone setting in Kies mode
- Rebooted phone (just felt like it)
- Assured phone remained in Kies mode
- Connected phone to PC via USB cable
- Watched while drivers were installed
- Gasped in amazement when Kies and my phone introduced themselves to one another
- Sync'd my Outlook calendar entries with phone (contacts had already been dealt with via a workaround)