Configure Outlook 2016 as a .msg reader ONLY without any profile or email address

Question

We would like to use Outlook 2016 as .msg reader since users will remote in to a machine that has .msg files, and we would like them to view the files without the need to create Outlook profiles since remote users are external users and won't have any email address in our environment. The solution would need to be permanent and not one-off thing like many blogs and article suggest of launching Outlook using the following command: Outlook.exe /PIM . We would like for users when they double click on an .msg file to open Outlook and view the message without setup dialog.

Answer 1

Outlook needs an email account to run or it will not start.

You can set up an account and the disable Send / Receive for all accounts so it not try to retrieve email. (Use Send / Receive menu and then Send / Receive settings. Go to All Accounts and uncheck all accounts that are there).

But you must set up an account, and that means you cannot set Outlook up as a reader only with no account. That is, you cannot use Outlook as you described.