Sending Auto response directly from MS Exchange Server

Recently one of my co-workers came to me asking me whether it was possible to send automatic response to message directly from the server. There are situations where it is necessary to send automatic response directly from the server. The preconfigured Out of Office rule is a working example of that. Only, it sends a Out of Office: preamble to every message and it sends response only to the first email received from a particular sender. It may be necessary to send response to every message and with a customised subject and message.

Step 1: In your Outlook Client click on Tools --> Rules and Alerts. If you are using Office XP or older, then you will see Rules Wizard instead of Rules and Alerts.

Step 2: In the Rules Wizard select the Start from a blank rule - Check messages when they arrive option and click Next. In Office 2003 and previous versions, the Start from a blank rule option is available at the top of the dialog window. This will apply the rule to messages as they arrive in the inbox. In the next screen don't select anything and click on Next. It will pop-up a warning that the rule will be applied to all incoming messages. Click Yes to proceed.

Step 3: In the next window, select the action have server reply using a specific message. Click on the specific message link in the lower pane and it will open up a new mail message window. Type in the subject and the message you want to send to all leaving the To: and CC: fields blank. Once you are satisfied with the message, click on Save and close at the top left of the message window.

Step 4: In the next window, select the appropriate exclusion option if any and click Next. Give the rule an intuitive name. Make sure that you don't check the check box next to Apply this rule to messages in Inbox folder. Click OK after turning on the rule.

For any message that you receive after this point, the server will send an automatic reply to sender whether or not your Outlook Client is running or not.