Managing Exchange Distribution Lists from Outlook

Microsoft Outlook is able to edit the membership of Microsoft Exchange Distribution Lists providing the user is allocated the appropriate rights. If these have not been allocated, the user is told that they “do not have authorisation to make changes” when they try to save the edited list.

At first glance it would seem that ticking the “Managed By” box and selecting a Manager on the “Group Information” tab of the list’s Properties dialog in the Exchange Management Console would be sufficient to allow that user to edit the lists, but setting the “Manager can update membership list” option on the “Managed By” tab of the group properties dialog in Active Directory Users and Computers is also required.

Distribution list properties in Exchange Management Console

Distribution list properties in Active Directory Users and Computers