Exchange: Hide Distribution Group Members

Other day I have been asked to find out if we can hide DL Members. So Users can see the DL in Address Book, but can’t see the members. I found it’s very easy to do. (Microsoft Exchange Rocks!!!)

Here is how you do it.

1. Open Active Directory Users and Computers console.
2. Click View Menu and select Advanced Features (to enable it)
3. Find your Distribution List or Security Group (mail enabled) in the OU
   1. DO NOT search your group. Because if you open the DL/Group properties from search windows, it will NOT show the Attribute Editor which is the advanced feature)
4. Double click to open the DL/Group to see the properties. Go to Attribute Editor tab.
5. Find hideDLMembership attribute, double click to open and select True. Click OK twice to close the dialog boxes.

It takes a while to take effect the changes while Exchange generates Offline Address Book and Outlook get it. If you want to make the offline address book process faster, follow my blog post here.

In Outlook, DL properties shows like this with hidden members.

If we check the DL in OWA, it shows like this:

Hope it helped you. Leave me a reply.