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I have an email account dedicated to receive employment applications, the HR department wants an automatic reply being sent to the applicants with a greeting and a privacy disclaimer, etc.

  • I can't setup a rule because it will only work when the session is started and outlook is opened
  • I can't set an automatic reply because it automatically adds "Out of office" in the reply subject
  • I found a 3rd party software that does the job, but this would be my 2nd choice ($$$)

Is there a builtin function in exchange server, or a free 3rd party software that allows me to send an automatic reply (without the "out of office" message) once a message has been received and having outlook and the session closed?

longneck
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The One
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1 Answers1

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When you create a rule, it can be created Client-Side or Server-Side.

On the server

You need to have the Allow automatic replies option enabled in Exchange for this to work.

Open "Exchange Management Console", expand "Organization Configuration" -> "Hub Transport". In the right pane, select the "Remote Domains" tab.

Right click "Default" and choose "Properties".

On the "General" tab, you can set which type of Out of Office Messages you will allow to be sent out. By default, only external OOF messages are allowed. You can change the option to also allow OOF messages created by Outlook 2003 and previous.

On the tab named "Format of original message sent as attachment to journal report" (Exchange 2007) or "Message Format" (Exchange 2010), you can enable or disable the automatic replying/forwarding.

Create the rule

In Outlook, go to "Rules and Alerts" -> "New Rule" -> "Start from a Blank Rule".

Select "Check messages when they arrive" -> Next -> Select "Where my name is in the To or Cc box" -> Next -> Select "Have server reply using a Specific Message".

Don't select a template because that will create a client side rule. Instead, you must select a specific message.

Alternatively, you can create the rule by logging in (as the HR email account) to Outlook Web Access. By definition, all rules created in OWA must be server-side rules.

Moshe Katz
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yagmoth555
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