All, I am in a brand new Exchange 2007 SP1 environment. We never had Public Folders, and only use Outlook 2007/OWA. I'm trying to figure out how to create a Shared Contacts list that everyone will automatically have loaded into their profiles. I am stumped as to where to begin. I figured that I could create a contact folder for a fake user, then share it out...but I can't figure out how I would have a user log into Outlook as normal and be able to see the Shared Contacts folder without having to Manually add it. Any ideas? Thank you. JC

Why not an Address List in the GAL? http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb232119.aspx

We can use the steps below as the workaround: a. When you created the fake user, open its mailbox in the outlook 2007, right-click Contacts folder, and select Share Contacts button b. Then outlook will new a message for granting permission. We can add the DL that contains everyone you want to share, and send the message c. After the users receive the permission sharing message, ask them to click the button on the top of the message Open this contacts folder d. Now, a new Contacts folder window will appear which will synchronize the Contacts folder of fake user. immediately, the share Contacts folder will also be auto created in the users Contacts folder pane e. So far, the shared Contacts folder has been automatically added, however, every user only has Reviewer permission (Read-only). We just need to open the outlook of fake user again, and grant more permission on the Properties of the shared contacts folder. finally, users will have a automatically created shared Contacts folder in their own Contacts pane

I thought that, but it's going to contain contacts that are external to our AD.

That's what I had so far, but it's not really automated...the users have to accept the invitation for the shared folder. I will probably do that for the short term, but a truly automated way is what i'm looking for (i.e. the user logs in to mail, and there is an additional contacts folder). What I can't figure out is that if Public Folders really was the way to do this, then why was it suggested in E2K7 to not use them? This would have been easier I would think through PFs. I must be missing something, I just can't figure out what :)

Yes, public folder can be an option for this task. Public folder will still fully support in the next version of exchange, exchange 2010. Since Terry's blog post, there seems to be much confusion over the use of the word "de-emphasized". Many people have interpreted this guidance as "Public Folders are dead, and we need to migrate to SharePoint now!" This is not true ---------Refer to <Updated Exchange Public Folder Guidance>