Communicator

Windows 7 and later has a feature named FastUserSwitching. We all know about it, but ShoreTel do not understand it. The discussion about their setup bug goes back for more than one year now and they still do not listen after 4 case reopens. It is clear that ShoreTel development do not understand how thier own software and Windows works. So I decided to publish this information to help you running ShoreTel Communicator properly in your environment. This affect nearly every version for about 5 years or more, but has been fixed in Mitel MiVoice Connect R1803. If you may ask why FastUserSwitching need to be disabled - the answer is simple. ShoreTel Communicator's SoftPhone feature is not compatible with multiple users on the same computer. This VoIP EyeP driver under the hood does not allow more than one user on a computer.

FastUserSwitching is these neat featue you may like a lot at home. It allows users to login to a computer with several users at the same time without logging the other user out. A typical home users scenario.

Situation:

If you's like to install software via Active Directory it may fail with Error: %%1274.

Symtoms:

• You can reboot as often as you'd like and your deployed Software always fails with Error %%1274
• Eventlog entry:
  • Source: Application Management Group Policy
  • Event ID 101
  • Description: Die Zuweisung der Anwendung ShoreTel Communicator 16.23.5631.0 der Richtlinie ShoreTel Communicator ist fehlgeschlagen. Fehler: %%1274
  • Description: The assignment of application ShoreTel Communicator 16.23.5631.0 from policy ShoreTel Communicator failed. The error was : %%1274

Workaround:

• Explicitly set the policy Startup policy processing wait time: Activated Amount of time to wait (in seconds): 120s. This is normally not required if FastLogonOptimization is disabled, but Windows 7 seems to have a bug here.

History:

• 04/09/2011: Exists in Windows 7 RTM and SP1
• 13/04/2011: Implemented Activated Amount of time to wait workaround.

Sometimes you may have issues with the ShoreTel Communicator application and you need to find out what's going wrong behind the scenes. And there is a quick solution to extend the logging level. Please keep in mind the log files folder in %APPDATA%\ShoreWare Client\Logs may grow.

Enable debugging in Communicator is done with the following secret keys strokes:

1. Focus curser in Enter you name or number field, where you normally enter the numbers for dialing
2. Hold CTRL down and press F12
3. A window opens with several debugging options.
4. Enable what you need and close. Disable after you finished debugging.