I am in the process of disabling mailboxes for our legacy mail servers but the question popped up in our league: In user's AD account under Exchange Features, by disabling Features such as Mobile Services and Protocols: 1. Will this completely disable the user's mailbox? 2. Will this prevent users from sending/recieving emails? 3. Will this prevent users to login to their Outlook/OWA? Goals are: 1. Do not disable AD accounts 2. Do not remove/delete mailboxes, just disable them Please kindly advise mates. Appreciate it! DB

What version of Exchange? For Exchange 2007 you can do this through EMC or Powershell to just disable mailboxes and leave user accounts enabled, http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Managing-mailboxes-Exchange-Server-2007-Part2.html. Per this article you can also allow/deny features on the users mailbox if you want to leave it enabled. Only caveat for disabling mailbox, the mailbox will be marked for deletion after 30 days as its the default setting, you change the period by following http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb125266(EXCHG.80).aspx. You should also be aware any email sent to these disabled mailboxes will fire back with NDR stating mailbox or user does not exists. For Exchange 2003 you will need to disable mailbox through ADUC-Exchange Task Wizard. Same rules apply as above for mail sent to disable user mailbox and mailbox retention settings.MVP Exchange Server

You can set their prohibitsendandreceive quotas down to 1kb. They'll still be able to open the mailbox, but they won't be able to send or receive any email.[string](0..33|%{[char][int](46+("686552495351636652556262185355647068516270555358646562655775 0645570").substring(($_*2),2))})-replace " "

"....For Exchange 2003 you will need to disable mailbox through ADUC-Exchange Task Wizard. Same rules apply as above for mail sent to disable user mailbox and mailbox retention settings...." In my Exchange Task Wizard, only displays the following: Move Mailbox Delete Mailbox Configure Exchange Features Remove Exchange Attributes Which one should I choose to only "disable" the user's mailbox? Cheers.

You can set their prohibitsendandreceive quotas down to 1kb. They'll still be able to open the mailbox, but they won't be able to send or receive any email. [string](0..33|%{[char][int](46+("686552495351636652556262185355647068516270555358646562655775 0645570").substring(($_*2),2))})-replace " " Ok, I have thought about this and might work. I just do not want users to think that their mailbox is still active by them knowing they can still launch their Outlook and see their mails - so might create some confusion on their end, dont you think? Thank you! DB

Well, you'd want to commuincate this to the users, but if you script it, and send the email just before you drop the hammer on their quota settings as part of the script that email should be at the top of their Inbox. If you want to keep the mailbox alive, but completely disassociate the user from the mailbox, you can create a dummy account for each mailbox, disconnect it from the user's account and re-connect it to the dummy account until you're ready to delete them. Every environment is unique, but somehow I'd expect if you do that you're going to get a lot of users wanting to get access to that legacy email because there was something in there they forgot they needed, and then you'll have to manage that.[string](0..33|%{[char][int](46+("686552495351636652556262185355647068516270555358646562655775 0645570").substring(($_*2),2))})-replace " "

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2006/10/13/429192.aspx MVP Exchange Server

Hi, I think the “Remove Exchange Attributes” is a better way to achieve your goal. Best regards, SerenaPlease remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.