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Make Microsoft TEAMS the default IM application

Make Microsoft TEAMS the default IM application

Having multiple applications that act as chat respective IM application but you want Microsoft TEAMS to be the default Instant Messenger application especially so Outlook e.g. shows the correct online/offline as well as free and busy status for employees and so they can start a conversation directly from there, you will need to make sure that Microsoft TEAMS is the default IM Provider.

This came up especially in combination with Cisco Jabber, that is often used as the software phone client for a Cisco phone system. This application might overrule the user settings and take presence especially in Microsoft Outlook. Cisco has an article about this here that talks about various registry keys. But this is actually not the direct solution for this issue.

In order to set TEAMS, if installed, the default application for your employees, it is easiest to engage Group Policies, GPOs, for this. Simply follow the below steps. Those settings will find out if Microsoft TEAMS is available and if so set it as default IM Provider. Close Microsoft Outlook and open it again and you will see the status icons and message box being associated with Microsoft TEAMS.

Of course, you could slightly adjust the suggested GPO settings and engage e.g. Cisco Jabber or any other IM provider available instead. Just have a look at the registry path HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\IM Providers and see what is available and set the GPO accordingly. All you need is the name of the sub key for the DefaultIMApp value.

Steps for the user GPO

  1. Create a new GPO (or chose an existing GPO)
    1. This will be a User Configuration
  2. Navigate to User Configuration\Preferences\Windows Settings\Registry
  3. Create a new Registry Item
  4. Settings on General tab
    1. Leave the Action settings to Update
    2. Hive: HKEY_CURRENT_USER
    3. Key Path: Software\IM Providers
    4. Value name: DefaultIMApp
    5. Value type: REG_SZ
    6. Value data: Teams
  5. Settings on Common tab
    1. Check Run in logged-on user’s security contact (user policy option)
    2. Check Item-level targeting
    3. Click on Targeting and apply the following settings
      1. The following steps make sure that this is only applied if Microsoft TEAMS is available as a IM provider
      2. Click on New Item and chose Registry Match
      3. Match type: Key exists
      4. Hive: HKEY_CURRENT_USER 
      5. Key Path: Software\IM Providers\Teams
    4. It is good practice to provide a Description for this item – e.g.: This will set Microsoft TEAMS as default IM Provider for e.g. Outlook – if available as IM Provider.

 

Make sure the GPO applies to your users and you should be all set. This will make sure that even if a new application is installed and takes the IM Provider role over, that your clients will still fall back to Microsoft TEAMS. Of course, it will depend on when the GPO was reapplied and that the user actually closes and reopens Outlook.

 

October 15, 2020 by configuration solutions windows

Move user Documents and Desktop to OneDrive

Move user Documents and Desktop to OneDrive

The PowerShell script below was design to move Documents, Music, Videos, Pictures, Favorites and Desktop to a sub-folder in a connected OneDrive. In theory the script does not depend on OneDrive and could be adjusted to any other destination.

While it normally is wise to engage GPOs to adjust those paths to internal server resources, this is not possible easily while using OneDrive. The script therefor works better here.

What it does

  1. is the current path per folder accessible
  2. does the target path exist
    1. YES: adjust the registry respective folder targets to the target path – FINISHED
    2. NO: create the target folders – see 3.
  3. is the source path on the same volume / partition – like C:
    1. YES: see below – 4.
    2. NO: check if there is enough free space for the amount of data needed to be moved
      1. YES: see below – 4.
      2. ALMOST: YELLOW warning – see below 4.
      3. NO: RED error – you could still proceed or simply close the script
  4. move the data to the new target folder
  5. remove the old folder – if not possible rename it

The script retains the special icons for the folders and engages the Windows API to adjust the folder paths.

What you need to do

  • Adjust the target-path in the top of the script
  • If desired, adjust the minimum free space value (2 GB by default) for the warning in regards to the free space – this only matters if the source and target volume / partition aren’t the same

To start the script, either right click and say run with PowerShell or run it directly in a PowerShell. This script will need to execute in the user-context and does NOT need administrative rights.

Please be advised – the script will by default not try to move e.g. DOWNLOADS.

You can adjust this, while adding the folder to the two parameter, see sample below.

If you want more folder, the script would need some special adjustments. It can be used as a base script, if you want.

 

April 18, 2019 by o365 / m365 recommendations scripts windows

Gathering profile information from computer

Gathering profile information from computer

Every now an then you might need to know who logged on and when was the last logon of which user to a specific workstation as well as the size of each user profile. For this I once wrote the PowerShell script you can find below. It does a WMI query against a list of one or more target computers and reads out the information reporting it back.

As input parameter use a comma separated list of computer names – those must be reachable and administrative accessible (you need at least admin rights on the target system). You then get a output set per profile.

The output can e.g. be transformed with the parameter |ft to see it in table format – like typical in PowerShell.

Output values are:

  • ComputerName
  • ProfileName
  • ProfilePath
  • ProfileType
    • Temporary
    • Roaming
    • Mandatory
    • Corrupted
    • local
  • IsinUse
  • IsSystemAccount
  • Size
    • this needs to most processing time – it is a manual size check including even temp files.. – other then what Windows shows you
  • LastUseTime

August 20, 2018 by recommendations scripts solutions

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