How to open an PST file without an email account in Outlook?

Supposing there is an Outlook PST file that stores older messages and items you don’t use regularly. Now, you need to find a specific item in that file but don’t want to impact the current email account in Outlook, what would you do? Actually, you can open the PST file without an email account in Outlook. This tutorial provides a method to help you accomplish this task.

Open an PST file without an email account with a command line

You can run a command line to launch your Outlook without an email account configuration, then import the PST file into the newly created Outlook profile to view the items. Please do as follows.

Note: Before applying this method, make sure that you have configured an email account in your Outlook.

1. Close your Outlook application.

2. Press the Windows key and the R key to open the Run dialog box.

3. In the Run dialog box, copy the following command line into the Open textbox and click the OK button.

outlook.exe /PIM NoEmail

Then Outlook opens with no email account configuration. See screenshot:

4. Now you need to import the PST file. Click File > Open & Export > Import/Export.

5. In the Import and Export Wizard, click Import from another program or file, and click the Next button.

6. In the Import a File wizard, click Outlook Data File (.pst) in the Select file type to import from list box, and then click the Next button.

7. In the Import Outlook Data File wizard, you need to:

8. In the last Import Outlook Data File wizard, you need to configure as follows.

Now you can view the items of the imported PST file in Outlook without configuring an email account.

Notes: