Cry Exchange How To...


How to grant Send As permission
(to allow sending email as someone else)


"Send As" allows one user to send an email as though it came from another user. The recipient will not be given any indication that the email was composed by someone other than the stated sender.

"Send As" can only be granted by a system administrator. "Send on Behalf of" may be more appropriate in many situations, it allows the recipient to be notified both who the author was and on who's behalf the email was sent. (See How to grant Send On Behalf Of permission.)

The following procedure will allow system managers to grant users the ability to send as another:

  1. Log onto the server running Exchange.
  2. Run Active Directory Users and Computers.
  3. Under the "View" menu ensure that "Advanced Features" is ticked.
  4. Find the user's account that you want to be able to send as, and open up the account properties.
  5. Select the "Security" tab.
  6. Click [Add ...] (under "Group or user names") and add the user (users or group) that is to be granted permission to send-as this account.
  7. For each account added, highlight the account under "Group or user names" and in the "Permissions for ..." window grant the account "Send As" permission.
  8. Click [OK] to close the account properties dialog.

Note:

  • The above sequence can also be used to send as a contact rather than as a user. To achieve this at step 4 (above) find and open the contact in Active Directory instead of the user.
  • If there is an account for which a number of people need to be able to send as (such as an account used as a single point of contact for a distribution lists) then administratively it may be simpler to add a group of users who should have that permission and grant the permission to the group and not to the accounts individually.
  • The process of sending an email as coming from another account is the same as sending on behalf-of. See How to Send a Message on Behalf of Another for guidance notes.
  • Be aware that Outlook reads a lot of security information from its address book and not directly from Exchange. So if after you have followed this procedure you find that Outlook does not let you send as another then see "How to force the address book to update", and try again.
  • The account you are sending on behalf of must not be hidden from the Exchange address lists. This isn't just so that its visible to select from when sending, it simply will not work unless its visible in the address list - undeliverable - You do not have permission to send to this recipient. It will be visible unless someone has checked "Hide from Exchange address lists", which is found on the "Exchange Advanced" tab for the account in Active Directory Users and Computers.
  • If you still find that Outlook does not let you then I am told (my thanks to Jonathan for passing this tip on) that restarting the exchange information store service will help. If you decide not to try that then provided you have followed the above steps it should work for you come the following day.

These notes have been tested with Exchange Server 2003, with Outlook 2000 and Outlook 2003. It is believed that they also apply to Exchange Server 2000.



About the author: is a dedicated software developer and webmaster. For his day job he develops websites and desktop applications as well as providing IT services. He moonlights as a technical author and consultant.