Lync 2013 silent install

Lync 2013 silent install

Performing a Lync 2013 silent install isn’t as easy as it was with Lync 2010, especially if the application you’re trying to install was downloaded from the Volume License website.
I’m not sure if the issue I had trying to perform a Lync 2013 silent install applies to all version of Lync 2013. The problem I had was that after I created a customised MSP file (keep reading to see how to do that) and started the installation silently, Lync was not there! I could see it in Add/Remove Programs, but I couldn’t see it anywhere else. Not even when I searched in Start: this problem occurred on both Windows 7 and 8.1. Note that I’ve only tried with the 32bit version (also SP1) as that’s the one I need to deploy (also to machines running Windows x64).

After searching for a while I finally got to a download page on the Microsoft website:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35554

Basically this file contains updated Office Customization Tool (OPAX/OPAL) files for Microsoft Office 2013.
Once you have downloaded the file, run it (it’s a self extractor .exe file) and choose the location where to extract the files.
Navigate to the location where you extracted those files and copy the admin folder in the root of the Lync 2013 installation folder and overwrite all existing files and folders.

Microsoft Office Customization Tool admin folder

Once you’ve done that, you’re good to re-create the MSP file for a customised Lync 2013 silent install. If you already have the old MSP file you created earlier with the original Lync 2013 installation, you must import it and save it back again.

If you’re here just to see how to create a Lync 2013 silent install MSP file, this is the moment 🙂 .
Let’s suppose the content of the Lync 2013 installation is in C:\temp\Lync 2013\x86.

Run the following command (you can also do it in “Run”):

"C:\temp\Lync 2013\x86\setup.exe /admin"

This will open up the tool that will allow us to customise the installation. You’ll be prompt to select the version of the application you want to customise and then you’ll be good to start using the Microsoft Office Customization Tool.

Microsoft_Office_Customization_Tool_Select_Lync_Installation

What I generally modify is the Organization name under Install location and organization name.

Microsoft_Office_Customization_Tool_OrganizationName

This is the most important part which will allow Lync to be installed silently. Firstly choose whether you’re going to use a KMS server or just type the product key in. Secondly, you want to accept the terms and conditions and finally select None as Display Level (or just make sure the Suppress modal is selected).

Microsoft_Office_Customization_Tool_KMS-AcceptTerms-Suppress

I also suggest you to add two registry key that will suppress the “Welcome” screen to the users.
Go to Add registry entries on the left pane and click Add. You want to add a new REG_DWORD, the key will be “Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\General” for HKEY_CURRENT_USER, the Value name is “ShownFirstRunOptin” and the Value data is 1.

Microsoft_Office_Customization_Tool_HKCU-ShownFirstRunOptin

Now you want to add a second registry key, this time it’s for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, “Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\General” and the value name and data are the same as for the previous key.

Microsoft_Office_Customization_Tool_HKLM-ShownFirstRunOptin
This is how it’ll look.

Microsoft_Office_Customization_Tool_RegistryKeyLync

Ok, ready! Click on File > Save as and choose the updates folder in the installation folder (C:\temp\Lync 2013\x86\updates). You can name the file as you want.

Microsoft_Office_Customization_Tool_SaveAs

We’re done! Now, when you will run the setup, it’ll automatically detect the MSP file in the updates folder and it’ll run the installation based on the above customisations.
Note that if you run this manually, it’ll show you the office logo for a moment. There’s no way to disable that. No worries though: when deploying this through SCCM, there’re no prompts: remember to use just Setup.exe with no other options as the setup will automatically look for an MSP file. Also, the user can’t really do much with it and it’s pretty fast.

Microsoft_Lync_Preparing_necessary_files

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