Lync 2013 now comes as part of Office 2013 ProPlus, or can be downloaded separately as a 700MB iso image. Both versions now require a valid licence key to activate, however there is also a free “Basic” client which doesn’t support Enterprise Voice features such as forwarding. The Lync 2013 basic client can be downloaded here – x32 x64.
When installing Office 2013 ProPlus a licence key can be can be entered during setup, however in my experience the standalone Lync 2013 installer just activates a 60 day trial. I know this because after 60 days users started complaining they were getting prompted to activate the software! This was the first time I learnt about the requirement for a licence key in Lync 2013. The Lync 2010 clients didn’t not have this requirement, and were only a 60MB download – not sure what happen there Microsoft!
As Office does, the standalone Lync installer also supports the Microsoft Office Customization Tool. We can use this tool to specify the product key to be entered during installation.
Open a command prompt window. To do this search “CMD” from the start menu and right click to “Run as administrator”, select “Yes” to run if prompted:
Type cd “<path to installer>” e.g. cd “C:\installs” (make sure you include brackets if you have spaces), hit enter then type “setup.exe /admin” to start the customisation tool:
Select the product and click “OK”:
Under “Licencing and user interface” select “Enter another product key” and enter your key. You can also accept licence terms on behalf of the user, and specify the installation display level:
Once you are completed with configuration select “File” – “Save As” and save to your installation directory:
Now go back to the command prompt window and run setup.exe /adminfile “<path to file you just created>” e.g. setup.exe /adminfile “C:\installsLyncSetupFile.MSP”:
Setup should now start and begin installation:
