Hi, Joe
1) Are you talking about live chat in SmarterMail or the Team Workspaces? If simply live chat, what version of SmarterMail is this on?
I've tested this in 15.x and 16.x and if live chat is disabled for a domain by the system admin, I don't see any ability to turn it back on as a domain admin much less use live chat itself. I do see chat history search, but that's to be expected as that's not removed from the menu if live chat isn't available.
2) This is by design. Checking the box won't do anything if live chat is turned off for the domain, however.
Derek Curtis
COO
SmarterTools Inc.
www.smartertools.com