Solved! Outlook 2016 w/out Email Acct

[bob4432]

I am trying to use Outlook 2016 (have been through many versions of office) with no email, just for calender and contact information, and have done this for a LONG time using older versions of Outlook. I followed this tutorial - https://www.systoolsgroup.com/updates/use-outlook-without-email-account/ which is similiar to a lot of others telling you how to do it, but as soon as I get things set up, as soon as I close Outlook 2016 and try to restart it, I get the screen saying I need an email account. If anybody can help me figure out how to get back in Outlook 2016 w/out and email and use my .pst that has years of data and hundreds of contacts that would be very helpful. FWIW I am running Outlook 2016, v1911 (Build 12228.20364 Click-to-Run)
Thanks in advance,
Bob

 

[corkyg]

Try this: https://www.google.com/search?sourc...329&q=Outlook+without+Email#spf=1576354426691

 

[bob4432]

corkyg,
Thanks for the link, that is the exact walkthrough that I found on a bunch of different sites, and that is what I did. It allows you to start up Outlook and you can go through and find your .pst, but as soon as you exit, the next time you try to start it up you get the "Need an Email" BS. Unfortunately the walkthroughs that I have found are mostly all from Jan 2018, so maybe something got changed??

It shouldn't be this hard, I know a lot of people that use older versions of Office as a calendar/contact manager, but this 2016 version is not letting it happen.

If I would have known this I would have just stayed w/ Office 2008, which worked fine. Waste of $$

I do appreciate the link though,
Thanks,
bob

 

[bob4432]

Anybody else? I can't be the only one with this problem.... 😕

 

[Steltek]

This one work any better?

https://www.msoutlook.info/question/using-outlook-without-an-email-account

I use the calendar app for Outlook 2010 myself without having an email account. I have a copy of Outlook 2016, but put off installing it out of fear I wouldn't be able to get it to work similarly.

 

[bob4432]

This one work any better?

https://www.msoutlook.info/question/using-outlook-without-an-email-account

I use the calendar app for Outlook 2010 myself without having an email account. I have a copy of Outlook 2016, but put off installing it out of fear I wouldn't be able to get it to work similarly.

Tried that one too. Maybe I am missing something in the reading but like you, I had Office 2010 and just figured it would be a no brainer to be able to use Outlook w/out an e-mail account as I have done it for many years and versions in the past.

Appreciate the suggestion,
Bob

 

[bob4432]

Anybody? I cannot be the only one w/ this problem. I need to access the data that is in the .pst but Outlook 2016 cannot be opened w/out an email address regardless of the tutorial.

Please Help,
Bob

 

[Steltek]

Okay, something must have gone wrong during your install. I just installed Office 2016 Professional Plus in a handy Win7Pro virtual machine I was working on for a repair client. The Outlook first run wizard crashed on me half way through; however, it worked on the 2nd run through.

You can reset Outlook 2016 so it will again run the first time run setup wizard. Please make sure to make a copy of your old PST file in a safe place. These commands should delete any existing Outlook profiles from the registry.

From the start menu in an administrator account, use the run command to execute each of these in order (you can copy and paste them into the run command):

reg.exe delete HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Profiles\Outlook /f

reg.exe add HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Profiles\Outlook

Next time you start Outlook 2016, it should again start with the first run wizard.



Hit next, get this screen:



Select "No", hit next. Get the following screen:



Make sure to click the "Use Outlook without an email account" checkbox, hit FINISH.

Then, it will probably ask you to enter your product key. Do so, and activate.

Go to the Outlook File Menu, select the "Open and Export" option. From there, select "Import/Export". This will start the import wizard to import your PST. Select "Import from another program or file", hit NEXT. On the next screen, choose the "Outlook Data File (PST) option, hit NEXT. On the next screen, browse to the location of your old PST. Choose the "Replace duplicates with items imported" option, hit NEXT. Then, choose the folder to import from, and make sure the "Import Items into the same folder: Outlook Data File" is selected. Hit Finish.

If everything works correctly, you should have your .PST imported into Office 2016 and be working without an email account.

 

[bob4432]

Okay, something must have gone wrong during your install. I just installed Office 2016 Professional Plus in a handy Win7Pro virtual machine I was working on for a repair client. The Outlook first run wizard crashed on me half way through; however, it worked on the 2nd run through.

You can reset Outlook 2016 so it will again run the first time run setup wizard. Please make sure to make a copy of your old PST file in a safe place. These commands should delete any existing Outlook profiles from the registry.

From the start menu in an administrator account, use the run command to execute each of these in order (you can copy and paste them into the run command):

reg.exe delete HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Profiles\Outlook /f

reg.exe add HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Profiles\Outlook

Next time you start Outlook 2016, it should again start with the first run wizard.

View attachment 14471

Hit next, get this screen:

View attachment 14472

Select "No", hit next. Get the following screen:

View attachment 14474

Make sure to click the "Use Outlook without an email account" checkbox, hit FINISH.

Then, it will probably ask you to enter your product key. Do so, and activate.

Go to the Outlook File Menu, select the "Open and Export" option. From there, select "Import/Export". This will start the import wizard to import your PST. Select "Import from another program or file", hit NEXT. On the next screen, choose the "Outlook Data File (PST) option, hit NEXT. On the next screen, browse to the location of your old PST. Choose the "Replace duplicates with items imported" option, hit NEXT. Then, choose the folder to import from, and make sure the "Import Items into the same folder: Outlook Data File" is selected. Hit Finish.

If everything works correctly, you should have your .PST imported into Office 2016 and be working without an email account.

Appreciate it greatly, will give this a go when this migraine lets is grip off of my brain. FWIW, I have the .pst file that is important in multiple places on and off the machine that Office 2016 will be going on.

Out of curiosity, does it make any difference that Outlook 2016 was part of Office 2016 Pro?

Thanks again, hopefully in a day or two, I will have the .pst file open and in and Office 2016 starts the correct way. Thanks for taking the time for the tutorial. Out of curiosity, are these images on any type of bandwidth or time sensitive hosting company?

Bob

 

[Steltek]

Out of curiosity, does it make any difference that Outlook 2016 was part of Office 2016 Pro?

Thanks again, hopefully in a day or two, I will have the .pst file open and in and Office 2016 starts the correct way. Thanks for taking the time for the tutorial. Out of curiosity, are these images on any type of bandwidth or time sensitive hosting company?

Bob

It shouldn't - Outlook is Outlook, whether it is stand-alone or as part of Office Pro. As far as the images are concerned, I snipped them during the outlook install and just pasted them directly into the post. Worst comes to worse, you might print the post to a PDF file in case a mod decides they take up too much bandwidth and removes them.

One thing - did you install Outlook as an upgrade over your prior install, or did you uninstall the prior Outlook, restart, and then install the new version? If you installed it as an upgrade, the issue may be a Outlook profile issue. You might want to run the reset command for your prior version of Outlook as well:

How to Reset Outlook 2016 / 2013 / 2010 to First Run State for Clean & Fresh Profile - Tech Journey

When running Microsoft Office Outlook, such as Outlook 2013, Outlook 2016 or newer versions, a first run wizard […]

techjourney.net

 

[bob4432]

Thanks for the info. I did what you said and did not get anywhere, so I went into regedit and manually removed what was in the links. Now when I start up Outlook, I get a screen that pops up asking me for a profile name.

I am pretty sure I upgraded 2016 over a working copy of 2010, so I will use the reset for it to you linked to.

Thanks for your assistance,
Bob

 

[bob4432]

I honestly do not know how this worked this last time, but I typed in outlook.exe /pim "No Account" in the run box and it opened up Outlook 2016 like you would think it normally should, just empty. So I went up to the 'file' option and selected my .pst and there was my data.

Hopefully this will work from now on.
Again, thanks for taking the time for the different tutorials, now I just need to figure out how to sync outlook calender & contacts...
Bob

 

[Steltek]

I'm glad you finally got it to work. Sometimes this stuff is more luck and serendipitous coincidence than science (especially when Microsoft stuff is involved...).

 

[bob4432]

I'm glad you finally got it to work. Sometimes this stuff is more luck and serendipitous coincidence than science (especially when Microsoft stuff is involved...).

I hear that. Many moons ago when I was taking some programming classes, we turned in our homework but this one person's program wouldn't run on the school's computer. Now these were machines that were identical in hardware and (in theory) software. Everybody's program worked except this one person's. He tried it on another machine and it worked perfectly. Then we all tried our own working programs on this 'special' machine and not one worked. Most of the time it does work, but it sure is a PITA when it is your machine that for some reason is not working correctly even though the code is 100% correct.

Thanks again for the assistance,
Bob

 

[ContreBombarde]

I am trying to use Outlook 2016 (have been through many versions of office) with no email, just for calender and contact information, and have done this for a LONG time using older versions of Outlook. I followed this tutorial - https://www.systoolsgroup.com/updates/use-outlook-without-email-account/ which is similiar to a lot of others telling you how to do it, but as soon as I get things set up, as soon as I close Outlook 2016 and try to restart it, I get the screen saying I need an email account. If anybody can help me figure out how to get back in Outlook 2016 w/out and email and use my .pst that has years of data and hundreds of contacts that would be very helpful. FWIW I am running Outlook 2016, v1911 (Build 12228.20364 Click-to-Run)
Thanks in advance,
Bob

Having just spent far more time than I wanted on this issue myself (ProcMon was involved), I documented what I found in case it helps others and posted it here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/a...ate-a-blank-34no-email34-outlook-365-pro.html