Exchange 2010/2007: Change the language of the mailbox or display names of the folders

Normally the user or his client determines the language settings of a mailbox that is hosted on an Exchange server.

Example: A new mailbox is created on the Exchange Server, initially the "Language" attribute of the mailbox is empty. When a client logs on for the first time, this attribute is now filled in. For example, if a user logs in for the first time with a German-language Outlook, the "Language" attribute is also set to German. In this case, the folders are displayed as in the German language, i.e. some inboxes and sent items etc.

In principle, the same applies if the first login for the mailbox is carried out via Outlook Web Access. In this case, however, the user can choose the language in which their OWA and therefore also their folders are displayed.

If the user now selects "English" via OWA when logging in for the first time, for example, OWA and the folder structure are displayed in English and the "Language" attribute of the mailbox is set to "English".

However, it can happen that the first login to a new user's mailbox is not carried out via Outlook in the user's language or by the user himself to OWA, but from another client (smartphone or backup software), for example. In this case, the "Language" attribute is set to a default value, namely English. This is also the case for German Exchange servers.

So if the language is set incorrectly for one or more mailboxes, you can either leave it to the users to set the correct language for them, or the Exchange administrator can do this.

First of all, the variants that the user can perform:

• The user can start Outlook on his PC with the parameter "/ResetFolderNames" (Start -> Run-> "outlook.exe /resetfoldernames"), whereby the mailbox is set to the same language in which Outlook is installed.
• The user can freely select the language via ECP

  

Of course, the Exchange administrator is also able to change the language settings, for this the Exchange Management Shell must be used:

For a single mailbox:

Set-MailboxRegionalConfiguration -Identity "Alias or e-mail address" -Language {en-DE} -LocalizeDefaultFolderName:$true -DateFormat "dd.MM.yyyy"

For all mailboxes:

Get-Mailbox | Set-MailboxRegionalConfiguration -Identity "Alias or e-mail address" -Language {en-DE} -LocalizeDefaultFolderName:$true -DateFormat "dd.MM.yyyy"

The -Language parameter specifies the language of the mailbox, in the above cases this is "German", the regional code can also be specified, a list of these codes for the available languages can be found here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa997435.aspx