How to start Outlook with all reading panes off by default?

Author: Siluvia Last Modified: 2025-04-07

In Outlook, you can quickly turn the reading pane on or off based on your needs when there is few folders to be applied. But if you want to turn off all the reading panes in Outlook at once, do you have any good ways to deal with it? Please browse the below tutorial for details of starting Outlook with reading pane off by default.

Start with reading panes off in Outlook 2010/2013 by applying current view to other folders

Start Outlook with all reading panes off by default

Start with reading panes off in Outlook 2010/2013 by applying current view to other folders

As Outlook can remember the last status when you restart it. You can manually turn the reading pane off and apply this current view to other folders.

In Outlook 2010 and 2013, for example you want to turn all reading panes off in all mail folders under a specified email account, please do as follows.

1. Get into the Inbox folder and click "View" > "Reading Pane" > "Off". See screenshot:

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2. And the Reading Pane has been closed in current folder. Then click "View" > "Change View" > "Apply Current View To Other Mail" Folders.

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3. In the "Apply View" dialog box, check all folders under the specified email account, and check the "Apply view to subfolders" box. Then click the "OK" button. See screenshot:

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Then all reading panes are turning off in all mail folders that you have checked in the Apply View dialog box, under the specified email account. If there are other folders which Reading Pane are not closed, you can turn off them individually. Stay in this status, when you starting Outlook next time, all reading panes under the specified email account are still turned off.

Start Outlook with reading pane off by default

For starting Outlook with all reading pane off by default, please do as follows.

1. Right click your computer desktop, then click "New" > "Shortcut" in the right-clicking menu. See screenshot:

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2. In the "Create Shortcut" window, please copy and paste the following path into the "Type the location of the item" box, and click the "Next" button.

1). Outlook 2013: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15\OUTLOOK.EXE" /nopreview;

2). Outlook 2010: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\OUTLOOK.EXE" /nopreview;

3). Outlook 2007, "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\OUTLOOK.EXE" /nopreview.

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Note: If the above path cannot be found after clicking the Next button, you need to:

1. Click the "Browse" button to manually find and select the "OUTLOOK.EXE" file by the above path;

2. After selecting the "OUTLOOK.EXE" file in the "Browse for Files or Folders" dialog box, click the "OK" button. And then add "/nopreview" at the end of the path in the "Type the location of the item" box.

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3. In the next "Create Shortcut" window, type a name for this shortcut, and then click the "Finish" button.

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4. Then an Outlook shortcut is created and shown on your desktop. Double click to open it, you will see the reading pane does not display in any folder under all your email account.

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