Add A Status To Microsoft Communicator, Modify MS Communicator Statuses

I recently started using Microsoft Communicator for a contract I am working on and wanted to customize it a bit. One of the things I wanted to be able to change was the status that displayed to other people as the default statuses are fairly generic and in my case I wanted to display if I was on an important meeting, working on a project, or just deep in thought. Below are simple directions that can be used to add customized statuses to Microsoft Communicator instant message client.

The default list of statuses includes Available, Busy, Do Not Disturb, Be Right Back, and Away as shown in the below example image.

Microsoft Office Communicator Default Statuses:

Add A Status To Microsoft Communicator:

1. Add XML File: First you should add an XML file similar to the example below to the Microsoft Communicator folder. In this example the machine that MS Communicator was installed on was Windows Vista so the new file, which we will call presence.xml should be located in the below directory.
   text

   
   

   1. C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Communicator\\

   So create a new file named presence.xml in the above folder and open it in your favorite text editor. Below is an example that displays four MS Communicator statuses and the basic format of what Communicator will read in terms of statuses.

   text

   
   

   1. <?xml version="1.0"?>
   2. <customStates
   3. xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/09/2005/communicator/customStates"
   4. xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
   5. xsi:schemaLocation="http://schemas.microsoft.com/09/2005/communicator/customStates
   6. http://livecommteam/sites/main/ice/Wave%2012%20Docs/CustomActivities.xsd">
   7.        <customState ID="1" availability="busy">
   8.               <activity LCID="1033">In A Meeting</activity>
   9.        </customState>
   10.        <customState ID="2" availability="busy">
   11.               <activity LCID="1033">OOO</activity>
   12.        </customState>
   13.        <customState ID="3" availability="do-not-disturb">
   14.               <activity LCID="1033">Meeting</activity>
   15.        </customState>
   16.        <customState ID="4" availability="do-not-disturb">
   17.               <activity LCID="1033">Working On A Project</activity>
   18.        </customState>
   19. </customStates>

   Notice how two of the above statuses are set to busy and the other two are set to do-not-disturb. You can also set availability to “Available”. The LCID number is based on location which in this case is the United States.

2. Modify Windows Registry: After you have created the presence.xml file you will need to open the Windows Registry Editor by typing “regedit” into the Run box after clicking on the Windows icon in the lower left corner of the task bar. Navigate to the below registry key which is also displayed in the example image below the key path.
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   1. Computer\\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Communicator

   

   In the image you will see a registry string entry that needs to be added and is called CustomStateURL. Once you have added the CustomStateURL string double click it to open it and modify the value which will be the below path to the presence.xml file.

   text

   
   

   1. file://c:\\\\Program Files\\\\Microsoft Office Communicator\\\\presence.xml

   Once the CustomStateURL string value has been modified closed the Windows Registry Editor to save the settings.

3. Restart Microsoft Office Communicator: Now close MS Office Communicator and then start it again. Now you should show any new statuses in the presence.xml file created in step one. The below example image display new statuses after clicking on the Status icon image in Communicator.

   

You can modify the presence.xml file any time you want to add new statuses that when set will display to others in your Communicator contact list.

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