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I have a client using Hosted Exchange 2007.

As the owner of the company, they automatically receive copies of all emails which are sent to their team (using auto forwarding).

The problem arises when the boss sets his out-of-office. When this happens clients who email members of the team get confusing Out of Office emails from the boss.

I thought I may have a solution using Outlook rules to emulate Out of Office, but there is a well documented bug and the work-around just seems too clunky to offer to a client (see http://www.leeandcathy.com/2009/07/fix-for-rules-in-error-cannot-reply-to.html )

Can anyone offer any other suggestions? Perhaps a third party piece of software?

The basic requirement is for an automated reply email that only gets sent when the boss is in the To or CC field.

Many thanks.

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Why is their email set up this way? Does the boss want a copy of every email to peruse, respond to, see? –  GregD Aug 27 '10 at 15:13
My second question is how are you going to use a 3rd party tool in a hosted environment? –  GregD Aug 27 '10 at 15:19
Hi Greg and thanks for speedy reply. Q1 - it is a legal firm and he likes to keep an eye on all emails that go in and out of the firm. Q2 - simple answer is "no idea". I'm clutching at straws really as can't see Microsoft offering any solution to the problem. I guess, after investigating the "using rules to emulate OoO" solution, I thought that perhaps a 3rd party tool could be installed on client PC rather than server-side? Maybe I'm being thick... –  user52576 Aug 27 '10 at 15:32
I should add... The client feels (and I agree) that he can't be the only small company out there that has a similar requirement... –  user52576 Aug 27 '10 at 15:47

3 Answers 3

I would just setup a separate email account, have all the emails setup to auto forward to that account, then setup his outlook to open that account as well. That way the out of office would be on his actual email account, and not on the separate account.

This is how you have outlook manage multiple exchange accounts: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291626

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In a non-hosted environment you can configure a "forwarding address" and the option exists to send the message to the "forewading addres" (the boss) and to the addressee. If this exists in the hosted solution, problem solved.

In AD Users And Commputers it is Exchange General Tab then Delivery Options.

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The reason I asked you the questions I did below your original question is because I felt like your question may have been worded wrongly. It sounds like you need a better way of archiving emails then what you're doing currently. Once you have that accomplished, the auto replies don't matter because they don't factor in to your archive situation.

Not quite sure how you'd accomplish this in a hosted Exchange environment, but we use GFI MailArchiver in our environment (not hosted). I would assume that most hosted exchange accounts offer these services to comply with e-discovery and email compliance.

Perhaps you'll get a more accurate answer if you provide the name of the service they're using.

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