Please let others know how useful this tip is via the rating scale at the end of it. Do you have a useful Exchange or Outlook tip, timesaver or workaround to share? Submit it to SearchExchange.com. If we publish it, we'll send you a nifty thank-you gift.
As an Exchange Server administrator, you're probably familiar with how quotas can be set on user mailboxes. Whenever users are near or over their quotas for message storage, they're sent a warning. The exact thresholds are customizable, but the actual warning messages are not -- they're hard-coded into one of Exchange Server's .DLLs as a resource string.
It is possible to edit the .DLL by hand and change the strings to whatever you want -- and many people have in fact done so -- but there are three problems associated with that approach:
- It isn't easy to make changes, and you can screw up the .DLL in question if you don't know exactly what you're doing.
- If you apply a service pack or hotfix to Exchange Server, you risk having the changes overwritten.
- Hacking .DLLs is no way to make a change like this if there's a simpler way to do it.
As luck would have it, there is a simpler way. Exchange Server programmer Jason Nelson created an application called the Quota Message Service (QMS), a .NET program that lets you create custom mailbox quota messages without modifying any Microsoft Exchange components.
QMS installs through its own .MSI, like a conventional program, and can be removed just as easily. Full documentation is installed in the same directory as the program itself.
You have to set up a mailbox for QMS, called the Quota Message Service account. This can just be quotamessageservice@yourdomain.com (the name is essentially arbitrary), but it should not be an existing email address.
The only other configuration required is a registry edit and the creation of a new Microsoft Outlook profile. The new profile logs on to the quota box described above, which is where the custom quota messages are delivered. The conventional quota messages are disabled; QMS sends them instead.
Templates for each quota message are kept in a folder at the root of the Exchange mailbox and can be customized freely (of course!).
About the author: Serdar Yegulalp is editor of the Windows Power Users Newsletter.
Do you have comments on this tip? Let us know.
Related information from SearchExchange.com:
Expert Advice: Understanding the three types of Exchange Server mailbox quotas
Expert Advice: Changing Exchange Server mailbox notification text
Expert Advice: Determining the best mailbox quota size for your Exchange users
Tip: Using system policies to manage Exchange Server
Reference Center: Exchange Server mailbox management tips
