When using shared mailboxes in Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007 there’s always the issue where the e-mail that’s being sent is stored. By default it is stored in the Sent Items folder of the user that’s actually sending the message, even when it’s on behalf of the shared mailbox. From a message tracking point of view this makes sense, although there are numerous reasons why it should be stored in the Sent Items folder of the shared mailbox.

This is actually a client setting and NOT an Exchange server setting. To achieve this a hotfix should be installed. For Outlook 2003 the hotfix can be found here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953803/, for Outlook 2007 the hotfix can be found here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970944/.

The next step is to set a registry key. Create a new DWORD in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Preferences, name it DelegateSentItemsStyle and give it a value of “1” and restart Outlook.

Three things to be aware of:

• The shared mailbox is added as an additional mailbox in the user’s Outlook profile.
• The user has Reviewer permissions on the shared mailbox;
• The user has Author permissions for the Sent Items folder of the shared mailbox.

Another option is of course to assign “Full Access” and “Send As” in the Exchange Management Console to the user on the shared mailbox, but this depends on the security policy of your company. Please be aware that after setting this it can take some time (especially the Send As permission) to become active due to credential caching by the Information Store.

More information regarding the registry keys can be found on the Microsoft website.

Outlook 2003: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953804/

Outlook 2007: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/972148

In Outlook 2010 nothing needs be changed. In Outlook 2010 when a shared mailbox is opened it is not opened as part of the user’s Outlook profile, but as a separate entity and as such it logs on directly to the mailbox. Messages sent on behalf of the shared mailbox are therefore stored in the correct Sent Items folder.