Set up conferencing policies for your organization

Conferencing is an important part of Skype for Business Online: conferencing enables groups of users to come together online to view slides and video, share applications, exchange files, and otherwise communicate and collaborate.

It's important for you to maintain control over conferences and conference settings. In some cases, there might be security concerns: by default, anyone, including unauthenticated users, can participate in meetings and save any of the slides or handouts distributed during those meetings. In addition, there might be occasional legal concerns. For example, by default ,meeting participants are allowed to make annotations on shared content; however, these annotations are not saved when the meeting is archived. If your organization is required to keep a record of all electronic communication, you might want to disable annotations.

In Skype for Business Online, conferences are managed by using conferencing policies. Conferencing policies determine the features and capabilities that can be used in a conference, including everything from whether or not the conference can include IP audio and video to the maximum number of people who can attend a meeting. Conferencing policies can be configured at the global scope or at the per-user scope. This provides administrators with enormous flexibility when it comes to deciding which capabilities will be made available to which users.

Policy settings can be configured at the time a policy is created, or you can use the Set-CsConferencingPolicy cmdlet to modify the settings of an existing policy.

Set your conferencing policies

Start Windows PowerShell

1. Install the Teams PowerShell module.

2. Open a Windows PowerShell command prompt and run the following commands:

   # When using Teams PowerShell Module 
   
   Import-Module MicrosoftTeams
   $credential = Get-Credential
   Connect-MicrosoftTeams -Credential $credential
   

   If you want more information about starting Windows PowerShell, see Connect to all Microsoft 365 or Office 365 services in a single Windows PowerShell window or Set up your computer for Windows PowerShell.

Block file transfers and desktop sharing during meetings

• To create a new policy for these settings, run:

  New-CsConferencingPolicy -Identity DesktopConferencingPolicy -EnableAppDesktopSharing None  $true -EnableFileTransfer $false
  

  See more on the New-CsConferencingPolicy cmdlet.

• To grant the new policy you created to all users in your organization, run:

  Grant-CsConferencingPolicy -Identity "[email protected]" -PolicyName DesktopConferencingPolicy
  

  See more on the Grant-CsConferencingPolicy cmdlet.

  If you have already created a policy, you can use the Set-CsConferencingPolicy cmdlet to make changes to the existing policy, and then use theGrant-CsConferencingPolicy cmdlet to apply the settings to your users.

Block recording of conferences and prevent anonymous meeting participants

• To create a new policy for these settings, run:

  New-CsConferencingPolicy -Identity ConferencingPolicy -AllowAnonymousParticipantsInMeetings  $false -AllowConferenceRecording $false
  

  See more on the New-CsConferencingPolicy cmdlet.

• To grant the new policy you created to Amos Marble, run:

    Grant-CsConferencingPolicy -Identity "[email protected]" -PolicyName ConferencingPolicy
  

  See more on the Grant-CsConferencingPolicy cmdlet.

If you have already created a policy, you can use the Set-CsConferencingPolicy cmdlet to make changes to the existing policy, and then use the Grant-CsConferencingPolicy cmdlet to apply the settings to your users.

Block anonymous participants from recording meetings and external users from saving meeting content

• To create a new policy for these settings, run:

  New-CsConferencingPolicy -Identity BlockedConferencingPolicy  -AllowExternalUsersToRecordMeeting  $false -AllowExternalUsersToSaveContent $false 
  

  See more on the New-CsConferencingPolicy cmdlet.

• To grant the new policy you created to all of the users in your organization, run:

  Grant-CsConferencingPolicy -Identity "[email protected]" -PolicyName BlockedConferencingPolicy
  

See more on the Grant-CsConferencingPolicy cmdlet.

If you have already created a policy, you can use the Set-CsConferencingPolicy cmdlet to make changes to the existing policy, and then use theGrant-CsConferencingPolicy cmdlet to apply the settings to your users.

Want to know more about Windows PowerShell?

• Windows PowerShell is all about managing users and what users are allowed or not allowed to do. With Windows PowerShell, you can manage Microsoft 365 or Office 365 and Skype for Business Online using a single point of administration that can simplify your daily work, when you have multiple tasks to do. To get started with Windows PowerShell, see these topics:

  • An introduction to Windows PowerShell and Skype for Business Online

  • Six Reasons Why You Might Want to Use Windows PowerShell to Manage Microsoft 365 or Office 365

• Windows PowerShell has many advantages in speed, simplicity, and productivity over only using the Microsoft 365 admin center such as when you are making setting changes for many users at one time. Learn about these advantages in the following topics:

  • Best ways to manage Microsoft 365 or Office 365 with Windows PowerShell

  • Using Windows PowerShell to manage Skype for Business Online

  • Using Windows PowerShell to do common Skype for Business Online management tasks

Related topics

Create custom external access policies

Block point-to-point file transfers

Set up client policies for your organization