I'm trying to clean up our GAL, and I have a few former users that will not be removed/hidden from the GAL. We are using a 2k3 AD, with 2K, 2K3, and 2K7 Exchange servers. I've gone through and done the same process on these as I have on the others that have left, which is disable the account, remove from all groups, and check the "hide from exchange lists" option. My first thoughts were that this was an Outlook caching problem, but I have turned off cached mode, the OWA address book shows them, and they have been disabled/hidden for nearly 6 months.Does anyone have any thoughts on how to remove them from the GAL? Per our policy, I cannot delete the accounts, only disable/hide, and possibly, if need be, wipe the mailbox from exchange. Thanks in AdvanceBW

I'm going to look into this a bit to see if there's more to it, but can you verify the msexchhidefromaddresslists attribute is set to "True" via adsiedit? Also, just to be clear, its not the autocomplete cache here - which now exists both in outlook and OWA - the item comes up in searches? Are there any other errors when you try to open the account? invalid attributes or otherwise? Mike Crowley: MCT, MCSE, MCTS, MCITP: Enterprise Administrator / Messaging Administrator

also it sounds simple, and im sure you've tried it, but just to be sure, uncheck the box, hit apply then recheck the box hit apply again. this should trigger the necessary directory update.Mike Crowley: MCT, MCSE, MCTS, MCITP: Enterprise Administrator / Messaging Administrator

Sorry, I just re-read your post and realized you said Exchange 2000 and 2003. I just saw 2007. Have you updated the address list to the 2007 opath version? if not, you may need to examine RUS and ensure its running properly, or force an update via ESM. If possible, I'd recommend running the update to 2007 so that this process is overall improved. See here: http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2007/01/11/432158.aspx Mike Crowley: MCT, MCSE, MCTS, MCITP: Enterprise Administrator / Messaging Administrator

Mike-Thanks for the assistance. After I posted this, I realized that both users were still on Exch03, so I moved one of them to 07 to test, and now he's hidden properly. I checked my List on the 07 box, and it looks like it's still in 03 format, so I'll get those upgraded before we drop the older exchange servers later this year. ThanksBW