So I have a bunch of users created in the Active Directory in Windows 2008. These users were created simply in the AD Users and Computers panel. I am guessing by default they are not mail enabled. I want to make them into email enabled users. From following online directions and "Email Address Policy" is the way to do it. HOWEVER, when I create the policy, container as root, "all recipient types' then in Preview only mail-enabled users are shown and not regular Active Directory users that i created manually. When I create the mailbox in Exchange (Recipient Configuration -> Mailbox -> new mailbox) the users show properly in the preview of Address Policies. Do I need to go through the step of creating the mailboxes for the users first ? if so, is there a bulk way of converting the AD users into mail enabled users? tia!

Creating the Email address policy will not mail enable the users as you've discovered. You can use powershell to bulk mailbox enable your users. Bharat Suneja MSFT has some examples here. It's for 2007 but will still work for 2010. Exchange Server 2007: Bulk mailbox-enabling users using Exchange Shell http://exchangepedia.com/2006/12/exchange-server-2007-bulk-mailbox-enabling-users-using-exchange-shell.htmlJames Chong MCITP | EA | EMA; MCSE | M+, S+ Security+, Project+, ITIL msexchangetips.blogspot.com

You could also use EMC to create mailboxes for multiple users one time. 1. From EMC, expand to the "Recipient Configuration" node. Right-click the "Mailbox" node and choose "New Mailbox...". 2. In the "New Mailbox" dialog leave the default selection "User Mailbox" selected and click "Next". 3. Ticket the "Create mailboxes for:" radio button to "Existing Users" and click "Add". 4. Select the user accounts you want to create mailboxes for in the list and click "OK". Click "Next" to proceed. Please 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.