The "Send an Instant Message" menu does not start Office Communicator on a terminal server in an Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Group Chat client

Symptoms

Consider the following scenario:
  • You install Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Group Chat and Office Communicator 2007 R2 on a terminal server.
  • You configure the DisableIM Group Chat Group Policy to only allow users to use Office Communicator to send instance messages (IM) on the terminal server. 
  • User A and user B use the Terminal Services or Remote Desktop Protocol session to log on to the terminal server.
  • User A signs in to an Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Group Chat client and does not sign in to Office Communicator R2.
  • User B signs in to an Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Group Chat client and an Office Communicator R2 client.
  • Both user A and user B join a chat room in Group Chat.
  • User A right clicks user B in the chat room, and selects Send an Instant Message.
In this scenario, the Office Communicator 2007 R2 client does not start in user A's session. Additionally, if user B closes the Office Communicator 2007 R2 client in his session after the issue occurs, the Office Communicator 2007 R2 client starts in user A's session.

Cause

This issue occurs because the API that is used by the Group Chat console detects that there is already a running the Communicator.exe process on the terminal server. Therefore, the Group Chat console does not start a Communicator.exe process in user A's session.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, install the following cumulative update:
2647089 Description of the update for the Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Group Chat client: January, 2012


More Information

For more information about the Group Policies for Group Chat, visit the following Microsoft website:
General information about the Group Policies for Group Chat