Cannot Send Mail to Both Users and Distribution Groups By Using the Active Directory Users and Computers Utility

When you try to send an e-mail message to both distribution groups and user accounts by using the Active Directory Users and Computers utility (you select users and distribution groups, right-click a selected object, and then click Send Mail), one object type (either the users or the distribution groups) that you selected does not appear in the To: field of the e-mail message.

This behavior occurs when you select a combination of both user and distribution group objects in the Active Directory Users and Computers utility.

If you select only one type of object (for example, only distribution groups), those objects appear in the To: field of the e-mail message, as you expect.

To work around this issue, send the e-mail message to only one object type. For example, send one e-mail message to all the users you want to contact, and then send an additional e-mail message to the distribution groups that you want to contact.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft Windows 2000 Server.