Deploying Microsoft Lync 2013 client

Hi Kevin, 

The easiest way i know of, using your existing configuration, is to create a batch file. 

You would need to "net use" command to map a drive in the batch file, and then point it to the command line  you have listed above. 

This "should" ensure that you're working in that environment without having to copy the files over to the target machine. 

It will run it directly off the network via command prompt. 

I've also attached documentation for other users who may be interested and who are not using the .xml method. 

I'm using the customization tool. 

For your purpose, you can skip to the batch file creation to get an idea of what i did, and what you can use for your existing XML config file. 

Please see the attached PDF for my documentation. :) 

On another note, did you have 2010 already installed on the target machine? if so, how did you get it to uninstall? i can't get it to uninstall using the 2013 interface. lamers. -_-

Hey TonsOFun,

I really appreciate that. This is our first go at Lync,so we did not have 2010 installed sorry.

I have never used Lync before, so I am getting a feel for it, and dince the Lync Basic is a hefty package, I was really looking to stremaline it.

I am gonna try what you had suggested and see if it works out.

Again thansk very much!

np, glad i could be of assistance. 

On the same token though, i had to create an additional step of uninstalling the old version using the old installation files. 

Works fine. However, just a heads up - during the install of 2013 64-bit program, any hint of office 32-bit product installed on the machine will fail the deployment. So although the deployment may work on some machines, it may not work on others, and if it does fail, you will need to run the install manually to see why. Vice versa if you're attempting a 32-bit install as well. any hint of 64-bit office will fail. -_-

just fyi in case anyone is having issues with it. 

I've scraped deploying Lync because of this. It's a headache since Lync is a heavily depended on program in my department. 

so removing it and then later finding out that the new version didn't install sucks. ;) 

ranting over.

Basic steps to deploy Lync for users who own Office 365 E2 licenses, but don’t have Office 365 E3, using Office Deployment tool. This also applies for other Office 365 service types where the full office suite download is not included.  In April 2015 This was impossible to find online and not know by the Lync support team.

Steps are:

1. Download the Office deployment tool from http://www.microsoft.com/en-in/download/details.aspx?id=36778 and extract it to a folder. For this example we will use the \\server\sharename location.

Extracting it creates a setup.exe file and it show a sample XML file.

1. Create XML file and give it a name such as LyncEntryRetail.xml

Note: The key is the productID that has to be the “LyncEntryRetail”. Other product IDs will download a version that needs another office 365 license. The productID “LyncRetail” needs an E3 license of Office 365.

<Configuration>

  <Add SourcePath="\\server\sharename" OfficeClientEdition="32" >

    <Product ID="LyncEntryRetail">

      <Language ID="en-us" />

    </Product>

  </Add> 

</Configuration>

1. From the folder where you extracted the Office deployment tool, run the following command on the command prompt to download the source files and store them on the shared drive:

Setup.exe /download LyncEntryRetail.xml   (This is the name of the XML file created above)

One can also run the same on a server share by using UNC path names such as

\\servername\sharename\Setup.exe /download \\servername\sharename\LyncEntryRetail.xml   (This is the name of the XML file created above)

1. Run the following command on the command prompt on a machine where you want to install the software:

\\servername\sharename\Setup.exe /configure \\servername\sharename\LyncEntryRetail.xml   (This is the name of the XML file created above)

Once you are comfortable that it all works, you may want to edit the XML file if you want to have silent installation and add the following lines.

  <Display Level="None" AcceptEULA="TRUE" /> 

  <Property Name="AUTOACTIVATE" Value="1" /> 

Regards
Bart

I followed "TonsOfun's" PDF above and everything works like a charm... but how can i stop the computers from rebooting after the install? I want to do these installs during business hours and dont want to force boot users PC's.

Clerk's MIS - At the end of the batch file, you can try placing an additional line with the following code: 

shutdown -a

This will abort any shutdown/reboot that is running. Hopefully, this helps.