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With Group Chat Preferences, you can customize the appearance and behavior of the Group Chat client to suit your needs. For example, you can edit the display theme for the client so chat rooms show the colors that you prefer. You can also configure notifications on chat rooms to which you belong so that you get an alert each time a specific topic is mentioned in a chat room.

What do you want to do?

Set General Preferences

With General Preferences, you can specify the general behavior of Group Chat. For example, you can configure the startup behavior for Group Chat so that the client automatically starts when you log on to Windows Server operating system.

To set general preferences

  1. On the File menu, click Preferences, and then click Group Chat Settings.

  2. On the left navigation bar, click General, and then set the options you want as described in the following table.

  3. Click OK when done.

Option

Description

Automatically start when I log on to Windows

Check if you want Group Chat to start when you log on to Windows.

When closing the main window

  • Minimize to the notification area – minimizes the client window to an icon in the Windows notifications area.

  • Exit Lync 2010 Group Chat – closes the Group Chat window and exits the program.

Display notification for this many seconds

Select the time, in seconds, that a notification appears.

When I remove a chat room or contact, keep my preferences for this many days:

Select the number of days you want to wait before deleting preferences set for unused chat rooms and contacts.

Show all confirmation dialog boxes

Check if you want confirmation dialog boxes to appear.

Notify me when someone adds me to his or her contact list

Check if you want to be notified when added to others’ contact lists.

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Set New Chat Preferences when joining a chat room

With New Chat Preference, you can specify the default appearance and behavior of newly joined chat rooms. You can also configure notifications that appear when instant messages are sent to you, to a chat room, or to a chat room filter. New Chat Preferences are the settings that are applied, by default, when you join a chat room not currently in your My Chat list, or add a new contact or filter.

Chat room settings can be applied in one of two ways:

  • Set default chat room settings. After you set defaults, any chat room you join for the first time uses the default settings. Changing the defaults does not change the settings of which you are already a participant. The chat rooms are separated into three types: group chat rooms, IM conversations, and filters. Defaults can be set for each type.

  • Set chat room settings for one chat room. This method overrides the default chat room settings.

Set New Chat - Contact Preferences

With the New Chat - Contact preferences, you can set preferences for all new contacts that you add to your list of contacts.

To edit the New Chat – Contact Preferences

  1. On the File menu, click Preferences, and then click Group Chat Settings.

  2. On the left navigation bar, click New Chat Preferences. Contact Preferences are the same as Chat Room Preferences, as covered in the previous table with the exception of an option, Notify me when this user’s status changes.

Set New Chat – Filter Preferences

With the New Chat – Filter preferences, you can select the options to apply, by default, when you create a new filter.

To edit the New Chat – Filter preferences

  1. On the File menu, click Preferences, and then click Group Chat Settings.

  2. On the left navigation bar, click New Chat Preferences, and then click the Filter tab. For a description of New Chat Filter Preferences, see the previous table.

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Set levels of access preferences

You can set access levels for contacts to control the level of your presence status and information that is visible for those contacts. For example, if you want co-workers to see your work phone number, you can assign them to the Team level. If you want to block a person from sending you messages and seeing your presence status, you can assign them to the Blocked level. Access levels can be set at a user level, or you can use the Permissions dialog box to set access levels for user groups or domains.

The following table provides a list of presence status attributes that other users can see. The first column of the table shows the presence status attributes, and the other columns show whether the attribute is available for a given access level.

Note:  Because Group Chat and Lync presence information is integrated, changes are reflected in the Lync Contact list.

Presence Information

Personal

TEAM

COMPANY

PUBLIC

BLOCK

Offline presence

Check if you want Group Chat to start when you log on to Windows.

X

Presence

X.

X

X

X

Display name

X

X

X

X

X

E-mail address

X

X

X

X

X

Work phone*

X

X

X

* If these attributes are defined in Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), they are visible to all contacts within your company.

Note:  For details about presence information and access levels, see the Lync Online Help.

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Change the access level for a contact

You can change the access level for a contact directly from your list of contacts in My Chat.

To change the access level of a user

  1. In My Chat, right-click a user.

  2. Point to Change Level of Access, and then click the access level you want to assign to the user.

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Set permissions for users or domains

Group Chat enables you to change the access levels for groups, including specific domains. For example, you can change the access level for a specific domain from Public to Company if you want users in that domain to have access to your work phone number.

NAME

De finition

People in my company

Permission settings apply to your contacts that are currently assigned to the Company access level. The default access level for this type is Company.

People in domains connected with my company

Permission settings apply to all federated users. The default access level for this type is Public.

People in public domains

Permission settings apply to Public Instant Messaging (IM) Connectivity users.

There may be cases in which the permission settings overlap. In these cases, the more specific permissions override the broader permissions. For example, if the litwareinc.com domain has a permission type of Public and john@litwareinc.com has a permission type of Personal, the user-specific permissions override the domain permissions. Similarly, by default all federated users have an access level of Public. However, if you want to provide a federated organization with a different access level, you can set domain-level permissions for that federated organization. The domain-level permissions override the People in domains connected with my company permissions.

You can set permissions in the Level of Access view of the Preferences dialog box. You can add, delete, or modify permission settings.

To modify access levels for a contact, access management entry, or domain

  1. On the File menu, click Preferences, and then click Group Chat Settings.

  2. On the left navigation bar, click Level of Access.

  3. Under Contacts, click the contact, access management entry, or domain you want to change, and then click Modify.

  4. Select the Access Level from the Access Level drop-down list, and then click OK.

To specify an access level for a specific domain

  1. On the File menu, click Preferences, and then click Group Chat Settings.

  2. On the left navigation bar, click Level of Access, and then click Add.

  3. In the Name box, type the domain name. For example: example.com.

  4. Select the Access Level from the Access Level list, and then click OK.

To modify or delete a permission setting

  1. On the File menu, click Preferences, and then click Group Chat Settings.

  2. On the left navigation bar, click Level of Access.

  3. In the Name box, type the domain name. For example: example.com.

  4. Select a permission setting in the list, and then click either Modify or Remove.

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Block presence status

To prevent another user from sending you messages and seeing your presence status, you can block the user.

To block presence status

  1. On the File menu, click Preferences, and then click Group Chat Settings.

  2. On the left navigation bar, click Level of Access.

    Note:  If the user is not in the user list, click Add. In the Set Access Leveldialog box, enter the user’s URI in the Name field.

  3. In the Access Level box, click Block.

  4. Click OK.

To block presence status when an IM chat room exists with the user

  1. In My Chat, right-click the user, point to Change Level of Access, and then click Blocked.

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Set Away preferences

With Away settings, you can specify whether to automatically set your presence status to Away when your computer is inactive (that is, when there is no mouse or keyboard activity) for a set period of time.

To set Away preferences

  1. On the File menu, click Preferences,and then click Group Chat Settings.

  2. On the left navigation bar, click Away.

  3. Select the required setting from the options described in the following table, and then click OK.

setting

Description

Set my status to Away when I lock my computer

Check this option if you want your status to appear as Away when you lock your computer, or when you leave your computer and it is automatically locked for you.

Set my status to Away when I am inactive for this many minutes

You can specify the number of minutes to transpire when you are inactive (you do not enter keyboard or mouse input) before your status changes to Away.

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Set display preferences

You can customize display preferences by editing colors and font choices.

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Modify the display theme

Group Chat provides a default display theme. When you first sign in to Group Chat, a default display theme is set. This theme is applied to all chat rooms. You can modify the default theme to suit your preference.

To modify the display theme

  1. On the File menu, click Preferences,and then click Group Chat Settings.

  2. On the left navigation bar, click Display Preferences.

  3. For default settings, select the Use System Colors check box. The system colors are used for Background, Hyperlink, Chat room link, and Sender link. If you changed these settings, selecting this check box restores the default settings.

  4. To select a color for the Background, Hyperlink, Chat room link, and Sender link, click the color box next to each item. This opens the color menu. Click the Web, System, or Advanced tab to use different formats, click a color selection, and then click OK.

    • Select how messages from others, messages from you, and High Importance messages appear.

    • To see how your new theme will look in the message area before you apply it, look at the example text box at the top of the window.

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Set user colors

You can choose colors for your chat room display name and messages.

Modify user colors

Group Chat provides a default user color display theme. When you first sign in to the Group Chat, a default user color display theme is set. This theme is applied to all chat rooms. You can modify the default theme to suit your preference.

To modify the user color display theme

  1. On the File menu, click Preferences,and then click Group Chat Settings.

  2. On the left navigation bar, click User Colors.

  3. For default settings, click the Restore Defaults button. The user colors are used for Text and Background. If you changed these settings, clicking Restore Defaults button restores the default settings.

  4. To select a color for the Text and Background, click the color box next to each item. This opens the color menu. Click the Web, System, or Advanced tab to use different formats, click a color selection, and then click OK.

  5. Select the Display user colors check box to override the Display Preferences theme. Avoid using the colors red and blue which are used for High Importance messages and links.

    • To see how your new theme will look in the message area before you apply it, look at the example text box at the top of the window.

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Manage sign-in accounts

Sign-in accounts represent different server configurations. They are used when you sign in to Group Chat. You can view, modify, add, or delete sign-in accounts.

To view or modify sign-in account settings

  1. On the File menu, click Preferences,and then click Group Chat Settings.

  2. On the left navigation bar, click Accounts.

  3. Select the check box next to the name of the account that you want to make the default account.

  4. To change the name that appears in the Account box of the Group Chat Sign In dialog box, type a new name in the Display name box.

    Note:  The display name of the Automatic Configuration sign-in account cannot be changed.

  5. To use a single sign on (SSO), select the Use my Windows credentials to sign in automatically check box.

  6. In the Lync Server 2010 and Group Chat Settings boxes, enter the values provided by your system administrator. You should not change these settings without the guidance of the system administrator.

To add a sign-in account

  1. On the File menu, click Preferences,and then click Group Chat Settings.

  2. On the left navigation bar, click Accounts.

  3. To add a new account to the Accounts box, in the Accounts dialog box, click Add.

  4. Specify the Group Chat settings for the sign-in account, and then click OK. The account is available the next time that you sign in.

To delete a sign-in account

  • Select an account in the Accounts box, and then click Remove.

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Set notification preferences

Notifications are alerts that appear on your desktop based on the criteria that you set to trigger these alerts. For example, you can configure notification settings to appear when someone sends a High Importance message to a chat room. Or, you can configure notification settings for New Chat Preferences. These are applied when a user joins a new chat room. You can configure notification preferences for specific chat rooms through the Preferences dialog box. These preferences are applied to either existing chat rooms or new chat rooms.

To modify the default notification settings

  1. On the File menu, click Preferences,and then click Group Chat Settings.

  2. On the left navigation bar, click New Chat Preferences. The New Chat Preferences selection enables you to define notifications for newly added chat rooms, contacts, or filters.

  3. Click the Chat Room, Contact, or Filter tab to set the default chat room preferences for that category.

  4. In the Notifications box, click Edit. The following Notification Settingstables describe the available options.

Option

Description

Open in new window

Select this option to open a message in a new window when a High Importance message is sent to a chat room to which you belong.

Show alert

Select this option to display a system alert when a new message is received.

Flash button on the taskbar

Select this option if you want the title bar to flash when a message is received. Select the Flash button on the taskbar check box.

Play sound

To play a selected sound when a message is received, select the Play Sound check box. Click a name in the list, or to find other sounds on your computer, click Browse. Click the Play button to hear the sound.

If you want the unread message count to appear next to the chat room in My Chat, select the Show unread message count check box at the bottom of the Message Notification screen.

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