Communicator for Mac 2011 managed preferences

Office for Mac 2011 will reach end of support on October 10, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see these resources.

 

Applies to: Office for Mac 2011

Topic Last Modified: 2015-03-09

Certain features and behaviors that are available to Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 clients are determined by preference settings on the client. You can standardize the settings for Microsoft Communicator for Mac 2011 in your organization by configuring preferences for the application and then deploying these preferences to users on the network.

The Office Communications Server 2007 R2 preferences are stored in the /Library/Preferences/MicrosoftCommunicatorRegistrationDB.plist or the User/username/Library/Preferences/ByHost/MicrosoftCommunicatorRegistrationDB-xxxx.plist.

The /Library/Preferences/MicrosoftCommunicatorRegistrationDB.plist corresponds to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE keys on a Windows-based computer. This means every user on the computer shares the same set of settings. You need Administrator privileges on the computer to modify the file in this folder.

The User/username//Library/Preferences/ByHost/MicrosoftCommunicatorRegistrationDB-xxxx.plist corresponds to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER keys on a Windows-based computer. This means that users who are using the same computer can have different Communicator settings. The keys documented below are supported in either of these .plist files. However, the /Library/Preferences/MicrosoftCommunicatorRegistrationDB.plist key will override the ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/MicrosoftCommunicatorRegistrationDB-xxxx.plist file, if available.

To add a new preference, in the /Library/Preferences/MicrosoftCommunicatorRegistrationDB.plist file, use the following syntax: hkey_local_machine\software\policies\microsoft\communicator**\<preferencename>**. Use all lowercase letters for the preference entry. Before you add a new preference in the file, you must create the following default preference entries with the specified values in this .plist file:

Preference	Value
Backward_Compatible_Version	1
Current_Version	1
hkey_local_machine\software\policies\microsoft\communicator\	<<MacRegNoValue>>

Note

To edit a .plist file, you can use a property list (plist) editor. A plist editor is available as part of the Apple XCode tool set. The default location for the plist editor on the hard disk is /Developer/Applications/Utilities/Property List Editor. Various third-party plist editors are also available.

The following table lists the Office Communications Server 2007 R2 preferences available for Communicator for Mac.

Office Communication Server R2 policies for Communicator for Mac 2011

Policy	Setting Name	Value	Description
AutoDiscoveryRetryInterval	Time interval to retry the autodiscover service	Default = 30 Min = 15 Max = 4800	Set time interval to retry a failed automatic connection to the server.
BlockConversationFromFederatedContacts	Block conversation from federated contacts	Not present = User choice 0 = Allow conversation 1 = Block conversation	Prevents federated contacts from starting an audio, video, or instant messaging session with a Communicator for Mac user.
ConfiguredServerCheckValues	Additional server versions supported	string (MaxLen 256)	Specifies a list of server version names separated by semicolons that Communicator will log on to, in addition to the server versions that are supported by default. For example, RTC/2.8;RTC/2.9. Note A space character is treated as part of the version string.
CalendarStatePublicationInterval	Time interval to publish calendar data to presence	If not present, the default value is 15. Min = 5 Max = 480	Frequency of updates to presence from the Outlook Calendar.
ConfigurationMode	Specify transport and server	Not present = User choice (default) 0 = Use the autodiscovery process to obtain servers. 1 = Use the manual server data provided. Value 1 requires setting the ServerAddressInternal and Transport keys. Note ServerAddressExternal is not supported.	Specifies how Communicator identifies the transport and server. If you enable this policy, you must specify the transport and either the server name or server IP address that Communicator will use. If this policy is not present, the user can specify the transport and server name in the Communicator Preferences dialog on the Account tab. Note You can configure this policy under both /Library/Preferences/MicrosoftCommunicatorRegistrationDB.plist and the ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/MicrosoftCommunicatorRegistrationDB-xxxx.plist, but the policy setting under /Library/Preferences/MicrosoftCommunicatorRegistrationDB.plist takes precedence.
DisableCalendarPresence	Disable Calendar Presence	0 or not present = Calendar data is published per the Update my presence based on Exchange calendar information option on the Account tab. The user’s presence status will change to In a meeting based on Calendar data (default). 1 = Feature is disabled and Calendar data is not published. The user’s presence status will not change to In a meeting based on Calendar data.	Disables the loading of free or busy data from the Microsoft Outlook messaging and collaboration client, and prevents this data from being published.
DisableFileTransfer	Prevent file transfer	0 = File transfer is enabled (default). 1 = File transfer is disabled.	Disables the File Transfer command.
DisablePhonePresence	Disable Call Presence	0 = Phone call (VoIP and conference) states are published (default). 1 = Phone call states are not published to presence.	Prevents phone call states from being published as part of the presence information.
DisablePresenceNote	Disable Presence Note	0 (or not set) = User is allowed to set the presence and Out of Office message. Out of Office message is published, per the Display my Out of Office information to my contacts option on the Account tab (default). 1 = Feature is disabled; OOF note is not published.	Prevents users from selecting or clearing the Automatically retrieve Out of Office settings from Outlook check box on the Personal tab of the Options dialog box.
EnableAppearOffline	Enable the state Appear Offline	0 or not present = All user interface entry points for this option are disabled (default). 1 = Users can manually choose Appear Offline on the Office Communicator Presence menu.	Allows users to manually set presence status to Appear Offline. User interface entry points for this feature do not appear when this policy is not present, or is set to 0.
EnableStrictDNSNaming	Enable strict DNS naming for server name	0 = Communicator can communicate using TLS transport with any SIP server that has an FQDN that ends with the domain portion of the user’s SIP URI (default). 1 = Communicator can communicate with a SIP server using TLS transport only if the server’s FQDN is an exact match with the domain in the domain portion of the user’s SIP URI, or the FQDN is sip. followed by the domain portion of the user’s SIP URI, for example, sip.contoso.com.	Allows Communicator to automatically detect and securely communicate with SIP servers that have non-standard fully qualified domain names (FQDNs). Note This policy setting only takes effect if Communicator uses Domain Name Server (DNS) lookup to query a list of SIP servers, and only if Communicator communicates with the SIP server using the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol. In this case, the set of supported server FQDNs depends on the SIP Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) of the user who starts Communicator. You can configure this policy under both /Library/Preferences/MicrosoftCommunicatorRegistrationDB.plist and ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/MicrosoftCommunicatorRegistrationDB-xxxx.plist, but the policy setting under /Library/Preferences/MicrosoftCommunicatorRegistrationDB.plist takes precedence.
EnableURL	Allow hyperlinks in instant messages	0 = Communicator will disable hyperlinks in instant messages. Hyperlinks will appear as text only in the instant message (default). 1 = Communicator will allow active hyperlinks in instant messages.	Enables hyperlinks in instant messages.
MaxAudioVideoBitRate	Limit bandwidth for audio and video calls	0 (or not set) = Communicator uses as much bandwidth as is available and necessary for audio and video calls (default). The maximum value for this setting is 1,000,000 bits per second.	Limits bandwidth that Communicator can use for audio and video calls.
Portrange\Enabled	Specify dynamic port ranges	0 (or not set) = Ranges are dynamic (default). 1 = Ranges are controlled by the sub policies.	The Portrange subvalues specify the ranges of dynamically-allocated ports that Communicator can use to transmit signaling data using SIP, and to transmit audio and video data using RTP. Set in /Library/Preferences/MicrosoftCommunicatorRegistrationDB.plist only. Cannot be set on a per-user basis. Note If enabled, this policy prohibits overlapping SIP and RTP port ranges.
Portrange\MaxMediaPort	Specify maximum media port ranges	DEFAULT = 5353 Minimum= 1024 Maximum = 65535	See Portrange\Enabled
Portrange\MinMediaPort	Specify minimum media port ranges	DEFAULT = 5350 Minimum= 1024 Maximum = 65535	See Portrange\Enabled
ServerAddressInternal	Server Address Internal	string (MaxLen 256)	Specifies the server name or IP address used by Communicator when connecting from inside the organization’s firewall.
TelephonyMode	Specify Telephony Mode	0 = Enable computer-to-computer calling only. 1, 2 or 3 = Enable enterprise voice telephony features. 4 or 5 = Instant Message and Presence only. No audio/video support.	Enables Remote Call Control (RCC), Unified Communications enterprise voice telephony, or both. For RCC, you must also set the Office Communications Server 2007 LineServer attribute.
Transport	Specify Transport protocol	2 = TCP (default) 4 = TLS	Defines the network protocol used by Communicator: Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) or Transport Layer Security (TLS).
WebServicePollInterval	Time interval to load calendar data from Outlook	Default = 30 Min = 15 Max = 4800	Specifies the frequency (in minutes) of loading calendar data from Outlook.