If you have one of the Microsoft webcams or headsets you’ll no doubt be aware that the the Call Button (by default) opens up Windows Live Messenger. If you’re in a businesses that uses Office Communications Server however that’s probably not much use, you’ll actually want it to open up Office Communicator instead.
The other day I stumbled across this article on the MS site that provides an administrative template (adm) that will allow a company using Active Directory to configure the Call Button to trigger Office Communicator. It’s a little thing I know, but it makes for a nicer user experience if you have MS hardware.
Anyways… essentially you need to save the following code into a .adm file, import this into a Group Policy and use that policy to configure your computers/users (more information on AD and Group Policy can be found here). Obviously don’t mess around with AD or Group Policy unless you know what you are doing, and test everything before applying settings to end users!
CLASS MACHINE CATEGORY !!MSHW POLICY !!EnableMOCIntegration KEYNAME "Software\Policies\Microsoft\Hardware" EXPLAIN !!EnableMOCIntegrationExplain VALUENAME "EnableMOCIntegration" VALUEON NUMERIC 1 VALUEOFF NUMERIC 0 END POLICY END CATEGORY [strings] MSHW="Microsoft Hardware" EnableMOCIntegration="EnableMOCIntegration" EnableMOCIntegrationExplain="Enables MOC Integration" ; Online Help Strings ADM_TITLE="Group Policy settings for Microsoft Hardware" COMPUTER="Computer Configuration" COMPUTER_EXPLAIN="Contains computer settings only." SUPPORTEDON="Requirements:"