[This is pre-release documentation and subject to change in future releases. This topic's current status is: Milestone-Ready]

Topic Last Modified: 2010-07-18

Microsoft Communications Server 2010 enables you to specify the version of clients that are supported in your environment. When two clients of differing versions interact, the features that are available to either client can be limited by the capabilities of the other client. To make the greatest use of features included in Communications Server 2010 and to improve the overall user experience, you can use the Client Version Filter to restrict the client versions that are used in your Communications Server environment. Using the Client Version Filter can also help improve costs associated with supporting multiple client versions.

In addition to creating a global policy, you can create client version policies for a particular service or site, or user-scoped policies that can be assigned to individual users. The user-scoped client version policy can be assigned to individual users from the Users category in Communications Server Control Panel.

Important:
Filters are listed in order of precedence. For example, if you have a filter that allows Communicator clients with a version of 1.5 or later to connect, followed by a filter that blocks clients earlier than version 2.0, the first filter takes precedence, and Communicator 1.5 clients are allowed to connect.

To edit the default client version policy

  1. Open Communications Server Control Panel.

  2. Click Clients. The Client Version Policy tab is selected by default.

  3. On the Client Version Policy page, double-click the Global policy in the list.

  4. In the Edit Client Version Policy dialog box, do one of the following:

    • Click New to create a new client version rule.

    • Click one of the defined client types in the list, and then click Modify.

    Note:
    You can use wildcards to indicate the client type.
  5. In the Application drop-down list box, select a client type.

  6. Under Version number, do the following:

    • In Major version, type the number that corresponds to the major release of the client.

    • In Minor version, type the number that corresponds to the minor release of the client.

    • In Build, type the number that corresponds to the major and minor release of the client.

    • In Update, type the number that corresponds to the updated release of the client.

    Note:
    You can use wildcards to indicate the client version number.
  7. To specify the matching operation for the client version you specified in the preceding steps, in the Comparison operation drop-down list box, click one of the following:

    • Same as

    • Is not

    • Newer than

    • Newer than or same as

    • Older than

    • Older than or same as

  8. To specify the action to perform when the criteria in the preceding steps are met, click one of the following in the Action drop-down list box:

    • To allow the client to log on, click Allow.

    • To allow the client to log on and receive updates from Windows Server Update Service or Microsoft Update, click Allow and Upgrade. This action is available only when the Office Communicator application is selected.

    • To allow the client to log on and display a message about where to download another client version, click Allow With URL. Specify the URL later in this procedure.

    • To prevent the client from logging on, click Block.

    • To prevent the client from logging on and allow the client to receive updates from Windows Server Update Service or Microsoft Update, click Block and Upgrade. This action is available only when the Office Communicator application is selected.

    • To prevent the client from logging on and display a message about where to download another client version, click Block with URL. Specify the URL later in this procedure.

  9. If, in the previous step, you clicked Allow With URL or Block with URL, in URL, type the client download URL to include in the message.

  10. Click OK, and then click Commit.

See Also