One last question – Can one “Managed Default Folder” (specifically “Deleted Items”) have two “Managed Content Settings” applied to it? I am trying to set some users to delete deleted items after 30 days, and others after 90 days. However when I try to create a second “Managed Content Setting” it fails.

Any help is appreciated.

What version of Exchange are you using? As of Exchange 2010 SP1 the UI for managed folders was removed and retention tags which are replaces managed folders are in place. No policy will go against any users until they are assigned it. So, if you created the policy properly you wont affect anyone outside your test group.

3. In this situation it will apply only to that test user and to no one else, is that correct?
—Yes that is correct

Assume all the above is true, can I then apply these 2 different policies to groups rather than to a lot of individual mailboxes?
–The policies need to be applied to the mailboxes not group and a simple powershell command can do this for you with somthing like get-mailbox | where ($_.someattribute to distinguish role -eq ‘teacher’) | set-mailbox etc.

I am having trouble verifying the following things
1. When I create a new managed content setting for “Deleted Items” in the “Managed Default Folders” window under “Org. Config”>Mailbox, that it won’t apply to any users until I configure it to.
2. I can configure it on a test user by then creating a “Managed Folder Mailbox Policy” then configure that test users “Messaging Records Management” under “Mailbox Settings” of that users mailbox properties.
3. In this situation it will apply only to that test user and to no one else, is that correct?

If mail gets deleted outside of my test group that would be really bad, so I am trying to be certain of this.

Assume all the above is true, can I then apply these 2 different policies to groups rather than to a lot of individual mailboxes?

Any help is appreciated, and thanks!
-KH

I got it working;

When you choose “When item is moved to the folder” as the start of the Retention Period, the retention period doesn’t actually start until the next time the Managed Folder Assistant runs.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/dhardin/archive/2009/05/25/understanding-retention-periods-for-messaging-records-management-mrm.aspx

Second if you want 2 different polices for 2 different mailboxes you can do this, you just have to create 2 different managed folder policies and apply them to the appropriate user.