Troubleshooter--Changing the Email Address Format

In a new Active Directory (AD) domain, all users' email addresses are [email protected] by default. Exchange seems to take this format from the simple display name. Can I globally change this format to [email protected], as I can in Exchange Server 5.5?

—Rob Carr

This problem encompasses two points. The first consideration is the user account's display name. The display name governs what you see in the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in and how the Global Address List (GAL) appears. By default, the snap-in generates this name as firstname lastname (e.g., Paul Robichaux, Cindy Crawford). The Microsoft article "XADM: How to Change Display Names of Active Directory Users" (http://support.microsoft .com/support/kb/articles/q250/4/55 .asp) describes how you can change the way the snap-in generates these names. Changing these names isn't difficult, but it affects only accounts that you create after you make the change, and it doesn't affect email addresses by default.

Changing email addresses is completely separate from—and easier than—changing the display name. You need to modify the default recipient policy or create a new one that specifies the address format you want. (To create a new policy, expand the Recipients node in Exchange System Manager—ESM—then right-click the Recipient Policies item and use the New Recipient Policy context menu command.) Creating or changing recipient policies regenerates the addresses that you specified in the policy; therefore, doing so updates the addresses on all existing objects and on objects created after you make the change. You can also use recipient policies to add secondary addresses to your mail-enabled objects; the Microsoft article "XADM: How to Modify Recipient Settings in Exchange System Manager" (http://support.microsoft .com/support/kb/articles/q263/8/45.asp) discusses how this process works. You can also refer to the excellent Microsoft white paper "Exchange 2000 Recipient Management" (http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/techinfo/administration/ 2000/recipient_mgmt.doc).