Been out on the road for the past two days so been dying to get the Skype4B update and i got it this morning 🙂 ill follow up with Lync Online user experience a little later as well.

The two new updates are

• KB2889923
• KB2889853

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2889923

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2889853

Client Versions before updates

Client Version After updates

After installing the update and restarting i was presented with Skype4B UI and options to restart now or later.

• This is default for Lync On Premises users and will use the Lync UI.
• Lyne Online users will be default use Skype4B client ill blog this later.

What does Restart Later and Restart now do?

Restart Later

Allows users to use the Skype4B client until the next restart.
You can by using a registry key remove this prompt and always force Lync UI but you must have done this prior to deploying the update so you may be a little late. This is explained further down.

Restart now

After restart I’m back to Lync 2013 UI but task bar icon, sounds, emojis are Skype4B which may get confusing. Its still Skype4B but you can force Lync skin but not 100% as it was.

But I DONT want this for my users at the moment ?

By default Lync Server will use the Lync Client UI so if you want to keep Lync UI your good.

But the users do see the Skype UI following the update to a degree.

If you DONT want them to see the SkypeUI at all which is too late if the update is already applied is to use a reg key for every PC. GPO may be required for this as could be a long day if not.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Lync
Binary Value , EnableSkypeUI , 00 00 00 00

You can also force/switch the Lync 2013 client using Lync Server Client Policy but this would be applied via inband policies ONLY after the user sees the Skype4B client and signs in which may confuse them.

But note make sure your Lync 2013 Serer has at least the Dec 2014 CU as this updates add the new EnableSkypeUI to the client policies.

Note the SkypeUI is set to false by default on Lync Server.

Get-CsClientPolicy | Set-CsClientPolicy -EnableSkypeUI $False

If –EnableSkypeUI  is missing from the client Policy you need to apply the latest or Dec 2014 Server Cumulative updates.

I WANT Skype for Business On Premises NOW using Lync 2013 Server what do i need to do

From Lync Management Shell we need to enable the Skype4B UI in the users client policy which will get applied via inbound provisioning. From testing a restart of my laptop got it applied in the end.

We are using EnableSkypeUI in the client Policy and setting to True.

Please note if this is missing you need to apply the latest Lync Server Cumulative update first ! below will enable SkypeUI for all existing client policies!

Get-CsClientPolicy | Set-CsClientPolicy –EnableSkypeUI $true

To test with some test users. create a new test policy and assign to a or some test users.

New-CsClientPolicy –Identity “SkypeUITest”

Set-CsClientPolicy –Identity “SkypeUITest” –EnableSkypeUI $true

Grant –csClientPolicy –Identity “Martin Boam” –PolicyName “SkypeUITest”

After a few minutes / tea or coffee your users via in band provisioning should get the Skype UI 🙂

Reg Key Updated via Policy

Tidy Up of Test Client Policy “Tidy Tidy” if one was created.

Put users policy back to global or as it was before so we can remove the test policy.

Grant-csClientPolicy –identity “Martin Boam” –PolicyName $null

Remove test policy after

Remove-csClientPolicy –identity “SkypeUITest”

Quick Tips from Skype4B update that users will see

These are presented to the user when Skype4B update is installed. Look and feel is good.