Mailroot Directory and Default Directories

Topic Last Modified: 2007-05-16

Setup installs five default subdirectories in the Mailroot directory so that Windows Server 2008 SMTP Server can process messages. Four of the directories are described in the following table. The SortTemp directory, also created during Setup, stores temporary files. The default location of the Mailroot directory is root:\Inetpub\Mailroot. However, you can designate a different location during Setup. The Mailroot subdirectories and their contents are described in the following table.

Important:
Be sure the Mailroot directory and subdirectories can only be accessed by trusted administrators. This security will prevent unauthorized or malevolent parties from accessing messages in those directories.

Directory	Description
Badmail	Stores undeliverable messages that cannot be returned to the sender.
Drop	Receives all incoming messages for all the domains hosted on the computer. You can assign any directory to be the Drop directory, except one that has already been designated as the Pickup directory.
Pickup	Processes outgoing messages that are created as text files and copied to the directory. As soon as a properly formatted Request for Comments (RFC) 2822 message is copied to the Pickup directory, the SMTP service collects it and initiates delivery.
Queue	Holds messages for delivery. If a message cannot be delivered because the connection is busy or down, the message is stored in the queue and sent again at designated intervals.