DisableIM in Office Communicator 2007

This month we had some discussions about the new DisableIM function in the registry to make sure a user cannot sent IM messages to other users or automated services in MOC.

Congrats to my MVP-buddy Jeff Schertz who discovered that the registry subkey wasn’t corrent. Scott Oseychik from Microsoft has corrected the subkey described in the KB-article.

So basically how do you activate this functionality:

1. Install the Communicator 2007 update package that is dated July 2008. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

954439 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/954439/) Description of the update for Communicator 2007: July 2008

2. Configure the DisableIM registry entry. To do this, follow these steps:

2a. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.

2b.Locate and then click the following registry subkey:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \Software\Policies\Microsoft\Communicator (the old value in the KB article was HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Communicator)

2c. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.

2d. Type DisableIM, and then press ENTER.

2e. Right-click DisableIM, and then click Modify.

2f. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.

2g. Exit Registry Editor.

Note After the DisableIM registry entry is set to 1, the following statements are true:

• The Communicator 2007 user cannot send or receive any IMs.
• The Communicator 2007 user is registered on the server as a user who has no IM capability.
• The file transfer feature is disabled in Communicator 2007.

Result: