Now that you have both Lync and the Lync Group Chat client installed, how do you make the Lync Group Chat client the preferred IM client?

Author: Stephanie (Jazzy) Doakes

Publication date: July 2011  

Product version: Lync 2010 Group Chat, Lync 2010

When both Lync 2010 and the Lync Group Chat client are installed, by default, Lync is the preferred IM client.

When Lync is the preferred IM client :

  • The user's IM contacts are not displayed in the My Chat pane. Contacts are displayed on the right side of the Group Chat window, in the contacts pane. When you send an IM to a contact, it relays the request to the Lync client. You cannot send an IM to a contact from within Group Chat.
  • Presence for a contact is shown as offline when they are only signed into the Lync Group Chat client.
  • You can make the Lync Group Chat client the preferred IM client.   

When Group Chat is the preferred IM client:

  • The user's IM contacts are displayed in the My Chat pane of the Lync Group Chat window. The user can initiate an IM with a contact directly from the Lync Group Chat client—without launching the Lync client or the Contacts Pane. The My Chat pane displays on the left side of the Group Chat client window.
  • Lync presence shows that the Lync Group Chat user is online, even when she is signed in to only the Lync Group Chat client. This behavior was changed with CU8. See KB article 2488155 Your presence status is incorrect if your default IM client is Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Group Chat. 

Perform the following actions to make the Lync Group Chat client the preferred IM client:

1. Add the DisableIM value to the following registry key*. You may need to create the GroupChatConsole and the Permissions keys.  

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious, system-wide problems that may require you to re-install Windows to correct them. Microsoft cannot guarantee that any problems resulting from the use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use this tool at your own risk.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\GroupChatConsole\Permissions

2. Add the following DWORD value to the Permissions key:

DisableIM

3. Set DisableIM to 0.

Note:   When this registry modification is made, the Group Chat client becomes the preferred IM client.

4. Exit the Lync Group Chat client, and sign back in to see the changes.

Summary

When both the Lync 2010 and the Lync 2010 Group Chat clients are installed, the Lync 2010 client is the default IM client. If needed, you can change the Lync 2010 Group Chat client to be the default IM client.  Setting the Lync 2010 Group Chat client as the default IM client uses the same steps as in Office Communications Server 2007 R2. The exception is that with Lync 2010 Group Chat, the change is included in the communicator.adm file.

Additional Information

To learn more, check out the following articles:

Lync Server Resources

We Want to Hear from You

Keywords: Group Chat, Lync, Preferred