Shoutbox

First post!

I'm a sys admin looking to control behavior of WLM within my domain.  What I would like to achieve is to log all messaging for all users.  I would like the users to be able to look at their chat logs, but not to delete them.  Also, I would need to prevent the users from turning off logging, or filtering it.

thanks in advance,

sean

Hi,

I can tell you what you need to do, but I don't know how to do it.

I'll presume you're using XP - if not then make slight adjustments.

For me, history is stored here:

quote:

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C:\Documents and Settings\Chris\My Documents\My Received Files\chris4158979229\History

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So the folder called Chris and chris4158979229 would be different for each user. You'd have to restrict access to that folder so the user cannot delete them.

The users can view message history in Messenger by going to File > View Message History. Although, I just noticed there's a delete button on the message history viewer. I don't know if you'd be able to disable that individual button or not? Maybe you can make all files in \History\ so they cannot be deleted?

If you want to prevent the user from turning off message history, you'd have to prevent access to Tools > Options.

Hope that helps.

Chris

Microsoft doesn't offer any support for managing WLM via group policy.  That said, you can probably figure out which registry key controls logging being on or off and make your own custom ADM file to turn it on for your users.  You probably won't be able to prevent them from turning it off until the next Group Policy refresh, however.

If you need to reliably log the instant messaging activities of your users, you should look at this or similar products.

Thanks for the ideas, but I don't think they quite fit my needs. 

I looked into the registry a little, and basically gave it up.  Particularly with WLM keys being under the guid of the passport id.  There is a company, http://www.policypak.com/, which can control most WLM stuff, but not this one setting.  I'm after them to add it, but they haven't yet.

I'm working on something similar for version 5, as a way of "Parental Control". I'll see if I can integrate more business oriented features like group policies.