In Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5, public folders are, by default, attached to their home site and server. With this feature, called limited administrative access, a user must have administrative permissions on the public folder's home site in order to perform administrative actions on the folder. For example, public folders with limited administrative access cannot be re-homed by anyone other than the administrator of their home site and server.
If you are creating a public folder hierarchy, new subfolders that you create will inherit the limited administrative access designation from the top-level folder. In a preexisting public folder hierarchy, you can choose to propagate limited administrative access to subfolders.
If limited administrative access is enabled, you must be an administrator on the public folder's home site to perform the following functions:
You can change a public folder's limited access designation on the General tab of the folder object. Select the Limit administrative access to home site box to ensure that access to the public folder and any subfolders is limited. If the box is not selected, the folder does not have limited administrative access.
Note If you have upgraded to Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.5 from a previous version, the public folder hierarchy will not automatically be set for limited administrative access. You should set limited administrative access in each top-level folder.
When upgrading your mail organization to Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.5 and limiting the administrative access to your public folder hierarchy, you should first ensure that all your public folders are homed in the desired sites.
For the limited administrative access feature to function correctly, you should install Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 on all the Microsoft Exchange Server computers in your organization. Previous versions of Microsoft Exchange Server may not recognize the limited access designation, and your public folders could be re-homed without your permission.