Public Folder Permissions Added To Exchange 2010 SP1 Beta EMC…

One of the issues with Exchange 2007 and 2010 deployments was the lack of a graphical interface to manage public folder permissions. Administrators have to use the shell or use third party products like PowerGUI in 2007 & 2010 RTM.

Exchange 2010 SP1 Beta brings this option to the public folder management console – add/remove public folder permissions and overwrite permissions of all subfolders with the permissions on the parent folder. Let me explain based on my lab environment. I have a public folder structure as shown below.

In order to change the permissions on the “Cisco Team” public folder, I have to select it’s parent folder (IT) so that “Cisco Team” gets listed in the middle pane. This is necessary to expose the “Manage Settings” option when you right click the public folder.

To change the permission, right click the public folder and select “Manage Settings” which brings the “Manage Public Folder Settings” wizard.

You can only update permissions (no overwrite), if you don’t have any sub folders. In my case, I don’t have any subfolders and hence the overwrite option is greyed out.

Clicking “Next” bring the option to add or remove permissions.

Select “Add”, pick the user and complete the wizard to modify the permissions. Note that you can select multiple users and set different permissions in a single go.

The funny thing is that you cannot see the public folder permissions, ie, which users already have access to a particular public folder.

Though more coding has gone in to the public folder management console, Microsoft needs to add the option to view the current permissions in place. At the moment, you have to use the shell to achieve the same. Maybe the final version of SP1 will add this option!