In Exchange 2007 & Exchange 2010 , retention or content setting applied to parent folder by default gets applied to subfolders.
In Exchange 2007 (MRM 1.0) we can block subfolders from processing by using the BaseFolderOnly option.
By default, managed content settings apply to the root folder and all subfolders in an Exchange 2007 environment.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/939037
With Retention tags (MRM 2.0),the BaseFolderOnly option is not available,which means that we cannot block subfolders from bring processed by retention tag applied to parent folder.
The only available option is block subfolders from being processed by Retention tag applied to parent ,is to apply Personal tags to subfolders.This Personal tag can have a different retention age or it can be a disabled tag.
We need to rely on end user to apply the Personal tag to the subfolders.Since Personal tag applied to one of the subfolder also applies to its subfolders also,it would be better if users organize their subfolders in such a way that there is only one subfolder under root folder like Inbox and this subfolder has multiple folders,so that we can apply
Personal tag only to the Inbox\Subfolder such that it is applied to its subfolder automatically.
For example: In order to block retention tag applied to Inbox from processing subfolders FolderA,FolderB and FolderB,user need to apply personal tag to each of these folder using Outlook or OWA. You need to apply the personal tag to any new subfolder you create under Inbox
User can organize their subfolders shown below so that we can apply personal tag to folder Folders,which inturn gets applied to subfolders FolderA,FolderB and FolderB.In this case,you don't need to apply personal tag to any new subfolder under Folder's,the new folder will inherit the personal tag from parent folder Folder's.
- Vikas