Occasionally we are seeing issues with the configuration of the presence integration between new Teams (v2) and Outlook.

This is affecting the functionality of the Busylight for Teams software.
IT usually appears when users are changing from old Teams (v1) to new Teams (v2). Users who switch to new Teams from an earlier state should not be affected by this, except if they still jump between using old and new Teams.

Users would usually experience that the Busylight does not light up or does not change accordingly to presence changes and incoming calls and IM’s.
This is a Microsoft software related issue and is discussed in the Microsoft Forum here.

Solution: Re-register Teams in Outlook

Since the logic in Teams is to take care of switching the Outlook integration to the new Teams client (seems buggy at the moment) this might not work in Teams Settings, but note, it’s always worth a try before fiddling with registry values (see Workaround).
Open Teams Settings > General > (if already ticked, untick then) tick “Register the new Teams as the chat app for Microsoft 365” – the tick should (dis)appear in no more than 3 seconds, if nothing happens please go to next section “Issues to be aware of”.

The Busylight software should recover on its own now, though if they do not, then please restart the apps below in the following order:

  • Outlook
  • New Teams
  • Busylight for Teams

If still not solved, then a complete restart of the PC is advised.

Please note:

When ticking the setting above you might face the following situations which will prevent you from solving the issue through Teams Settings since you cannot force Teams to reregister with Outlook.

  • The administrator has locked the setting so you cannot toggle it on/off.
  • The tick never (dis)appears (usually await 3 seconds after a click) – indication of the described bug in the preface.

If any of the above circumstances occur, please advice with your Microsoft administrator or go to the "work arounds" below.

Workaround: Forcing the registry value of DefaultIMApp to MsTeams

Changing the registry settings manually is not recommeded for inexperienced users, but we have found that most cases can be resolved by doing just this – if you proceed, please be cautious. There are two approaches here, all manual, and semi manual – for inexperienced users we recommend the Semi-manual approach since you do not need to modify anything yourself!

Semi-manual workaround
In the software download package, we have included a file within the “DefaultIMApp Registry key” folder. Executing the file sets the registry key to the right value required for new Teams to function with Outlook correctly, like described further down in the manual approach.

1. Execute “Set_DefaultIMApp_as_MsTeams_fix.reg” file located in the “DefaultIMApp Registry key” folder.
2. Windows UAC will ask if you want to allow the app to make changes, select Yes.
3. Another window will pop up asking you to confirm to add the values of the file, select Yes.
4. A confirmation should show, telling you it was added successfully, select OK.
5. Busylight should now recover automatically from the change, however, it might be necessary to restart the apps below in the following order:

  • Outlook
  • New Teams
  • Busylight for Teams

If it is still not working, please try to restart the PC.

Registry file content: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\IM Providers]
"DefaultIMApp"="MsTeams"

Manual workaround
You can set the DefaultIMApp key by following the below described steps, utilizing the RegEdit program included with Windows.
1. Open regedit
2. On the left side of the view browse to the path: Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\IM Providers
3. On the right side locate and open (double click) the key named “DefaultIMApp”.
4. In Value data field write “MsTeams” – case sensitive and without quotes.
5. Busylight should now recover automatically from the change, but it might be necessary to restart the apps below in the following order:

  • Outlook
  • New Teams
  • Busylight for Teams

If it is still not working, please try to restart the PC.

Still not working?

If the issue is not resolved by the steps above, please do not hesitate to contact support at:
[email protected]


Note in general when working with Teams the following details will be requested to ensure integrity with the Office COM interface, so you can speed up the process by submitting the information when reaching out to us.

  • Your Windows version (7, 8, 10, 11)
  • Bitversion of the following 3 apps;
    • Office (32- or 64bit)
    • Teams (32- or 64bit)
    • Busylight for Teams (32- or 64bit)