The "not so simple" Simple Display Name

Consider the following scenario:

This applies both to Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010.

We have two Users :

User1 ( User1@mp3.lol ):

Display Name : User 1

Simple DisplayName : User One

User2 ( User2@mp3.lol ):

Display Name : User 2

Simple Display Name : N/A ( not configured )

We have one Remote-Domain: Default.

We want to use the Simple Display Name for External Emails and we configure:

Set-RemoteDomain “Default” –UseSimpleDisplayName $true

User1 and User2 start sending External Emails:

RESULT:

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User1 (User1@mp3.lol ) sends Email to external user: User99@mp4.lol ->  Email will appear for User99 to come from “User One <User1@mp3.lol>”

User2 (User2@mp3.lol ) sends Email to external User: User99@mp4.lol -> Email will appear for User99 to come from “User2@mp3.lol <User2@mp3.lol>

CAUSE:

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When the UseSimpleDisplayName Parameter on the Default Remote Domain is set to $True we
check for the Simple Display Name attribute to be set on the sending User and attach it to his <SMTP Address>.

If a User doesn’t have a Simple Display Name, we will send using the following format : “SMTP Address <SMTPAddress>”.

You probably would say: Why don’t we use the Simple Display Name when this is configured, and for the Users where this isn’t configured, use the Display Name?

Answer here would be: this is the design that we currently have in the Products.

What can you do to “change” this?

Well, you could create a script which should populate the Simple Display Name for the users who have it empty, with their Display Name.

Or you could just come back to the UseSimpleDisplayName $false and use the Display Name.

What you should take into consideration here is the character sets that each of these fields support:

 Display-Name attribute:

 https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms675514(v=vs.85).aspx

 

Ldap-Display-Name

 displayName

Syntax

String(Unicode)

 

Display-Name-Printable attribute:

 https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms675515(v=vs.85).aspx

Ldap-Display-Name

 displayNamePrintable

Syntax

String(IA5)

 For example, german Umlauts ( öäü ) are not included in IA5.