Jeff Wouters's Blog

Problem
Symptom 1: Microsoft Outlook (2010) does not remember the mail profile when logging on for a second time.
Symptom 2: Every time Outlook starts for the first time in a session, it comes with a “First run”-wizard.

Cause
Outlook can be forced to run the “First run”-wizard every first time Outlook is started. When using mandatory profiles, the configuration chance to the user profile will not be saved and when a user starts a new session, Outlook will think the “First run”- wizard has not been run yet.

Workaround
Don’t use mandatory profiles.

Resolution
Remove the following registry keys from your installation:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\14.0\User Settings\{C22A96AB-A00C-4A3D-9545-42B4C0005809}\Create\software\microsoft\office\14.0\outlook\Setup
“ImportPRF”=”C:\\PROGRA~2\\MICROS~1\\custom14.prf”
”First-Run”=”hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00”

The registry key for “custom14.prf” is also described in KB242642 in the RES Software Knowledge Base, but without the removal of the “First-Run” key it did not solve my customers issue.

Note: This only applies in environments where mandatory profiles are used.