Create a new email from Quick Launch

How can I create a shortcut to create a new message without going into Outlook first?

It is possible but you need to determine the path to outlook.exe first.

In general you’ll find it under;
32-bit version of Windows: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office <version number>
64-bit version of Windows: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office <version number>

If you can’t find it, do a search for outlook.exe or use OutlookTools (free) instead.

Once you’ve found outlook.exe;

1. Right click on an empty space on your Desktop and choose New-> Shortcut
2. Type the path to outlook.exe between quotes or browse to its location via the Browse… button
3. Type a space behind that and /c ipm.note
4. The entire line should now look like this (example is for Outlook 2007 on a 32-bit Windows);
   "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\OUTLOOK.EXE" /c ipm.note
5. Click Next
6. Name your shortcut for instance: New Message
7. Click Finish

You can now drag and drop the shortcut from the Desktop to any place that you like such as the Quick Launch toolbar.

To change the icon, right click the shortcut and click properties. On the Shortcut tab click the Change Icon… button.