Exchange disaster #6829: Self-mail-enabling Public Folders are not possible to "mail-disable"

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After reading the subject line, you are undoubtedly saying to yourself, “…What?” And with good reason I might add.

It turns out that viewing the properties of a Public Folder from the Exchange 2003 ESM (Exchange System Manager) which was created in Exchange 5.5 and migrated to Exchange 2003 will automatically cause the folder to become mail-enabled — even if you “Cancel” out of the properties window and made no changes at all! What’s better? Now you can get cryptic serialized names showing up in your GAL that look like this one I found today (exact copy and paste, no embellishment): 2708b030-d58a-42c0-8764-ff90f8735656. What’s better is the string of phone calls and emails that pour in from executives who are wondering why this is happening and are not only unsympathetic to your plight as an Exchange sys-admin (who lobbied from the get go to never install Exchange in the first place) but are also entirely incapable of comprehending that there is no possible way to remove this known and documented Microsoft Exchange issue.

I heart Microsoft Exchange.

“…and the winner of this year’s Francis E Dec, run-on-raving-lunatic-rant-award goes to… AnalogDuck for his vehement display of emotion over the Microsoft Exchange mail-enabled Public Folder glitch!”

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