Out of Office Changer for Exchange 2003

 
This application is still in progress but is currently in a usable state. It allows you to change exchange 2003 user “Out of Office” statuses and messages (as long as you have the privileges set up correctly)!
 
Requirements:

  • Windows Server Domain and Exchange 2003 Server with users that have mailboxes.
  • The correct security group or permissions set up for the User running the application.
  • The PC or Server you run this from needs to have the Exchange 2003 management tools installed. (i.e. ESM).
  • The Security Group (or user) depending on how you prefer your permissions set, needs to have “Send As” and “Receive As” permissions for the Mailbox store that contains your user mailboxes.

 
If you would like to see the application in action take a look at this 5 minute tutorial in video:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Cfc8BRQyfo
 
At the moment I would like to write some more detailed instructions as to how to set up each of the above requirements, but I just don’t seem to have the time at the moment. If you have used “Exmerge” before, the way you set up the Send as and Receive as permissions for a user or security group to run Exmerge is basically identical. If anyone has any difficulty getting this app running, please drop a comment below and I’ll assist where I can.

Note: This application only has the ability to set or unset an out of office status and change the message. It shouldn’t do anything else. Although the chances of anything going wrong are highly unlikely, I take no responsibility for any damage or loss caused to your server environment as a result of using this application.
 
[download id=”3″]
Download OOO changer
 

11 thoughts on “Out of Office Changer for Exchange 2003”

  1. This is a great app for anyone in helpdesk who needs to set-up out of office for other colleagues.

    If there are any plans to improve the software, a request i would suggest is the facility to see an existing out of office wording once a mailbox has been selected and the current status of the out of office for a mailbox.

    Well done!

  2. Can I ask about the coding that you use to get mailbox and set out of office? Which one that you use MAPI or something else?

    Thanks

  3. Hi Jerry,

    It requires a bit more work in order to support Exchange 2007 – so no not at this time. I will update this page if and when I get 2007 support going. It would probably be best to use some kind of Powershell scripting to change Out of Office status for 2007 so I will definitely have a look into this in the near future.

    Cheers,
    Sean

  4. Hey Chaz,

    That’s great to hear – glad it is helping. Feel free to drop any suggestions / bugs in the comments in the future. I don’t get much free time to program but will keep any suggestions archived and work on the application when I do.

    Cheers!

  5. Absolutly Fantastic Little App,

    Have got this setup as a shortcut on our Exchange server desktop now, and it makes what was normally an annoying task into something very simple indeed.

    Cheers Dude!

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