XFOR: How To Change cc:Mail Address Format To "Last, First"

Custom Recipients created in Microsoft Exchange Server through cc:Mail connector directory synchronization have an e-mail address format of "First Last at ccpostoffice;" however, an administrator may prefer they be addressed as "Last, First at ccpostoffice."

This article discusses changing the e-mail address for cc:Mail custom recipients; it does not discuss changing the display name or alias. To change the default behavior for those fields, please see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

When directory synchronization is configured between Exchange Server and cc:Mail, custom recipients matched to cc:Mail users are created in the Exchange address list. The default e-mail address for a cc:Mail recipient created in Exchange Server through directory synchronization will be in the following format:

However, it is common practice among cc:Mail administrators to define users in the following format:

Even though the e-mail address in Exchange is "First Last at ccpostoffice," mail will still be delivered correctly to cc:Mail recipients defined as "Last, First at ccpostoffice."

However, the "First Last" naming style in Exchange may cause other problems if there is more than one cc:Mail connector in the Exchange Server organization or if synchronization-generated cc:Mail custom recipients are replicated out of Exchange Server back to cc:Mail.

In these cases, the Exchange-style name formatting may overwrite the cc:Mail formatting as seen in the cc:Mail Administrator program. This can be annoying to cc:Mail administrators who are used to searching for users and sorting lists by Last names.

If you are backboning cc:Mail through Exchange Server, and using the Exchange Server Administrator program rather than cc:Mail Administrator to create cc:Mail recipients, the First Last style may pose similar problems.

To work around this problem, you may enable a registry value that causes the generation of cc:Mail custom recipient addresses in the format "Last, First at ccpostoffice." This registry setting will also create a secondary proxy address in the form "First Last at ccpostoffice." Thus, each cc:Mail custom recipient will be associated with both addressing forms.

Note that this registry change will cause this effect only for imported cc:Mail recipients whose names are in "Last, First" format. If a cc:Mail entry synchronized with Exchange is not a BBS or ML entry, or is not in "Last, First" format, then this registry change will have no effect for that entry

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the "Changing Keys And Values" Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) or the "Add and Delete Information in the Registry" and "Edit Registry Data" Help topics in Regedt32.exe. Note that you should back up the registry before you edit it.

To enable the fix, after installing the latest Microsoft Exchange Server 5.0 U.S. Service Pack, start the Microsoft Windows NT Registry Editor and locate the following key:

Set this key to 0x1 (hexadecimal 1) for "Last, First" name format address generation. (By default, the key is set to 0x0.)

If this key does not exist, create it as a DWORD and set it to 0x1 for the new behavior or 0x00 for the old behavior. If this key does not exist, it is possible you have not installed the correct service pack.

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.0. This problem was corrected in the latest Microsoft Exchange 5.0 Server U.S. Service Pack. For information on obtaining the service pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):