How to handle Lync 2010 Clients updates

Sometimes, you just have to get creative! A few ways you could handle this:

  1. Gently: Set up an advertisement that is optional for the update. The user will see that an update for Lync is available, but it can be installed at their discretion. You can then run a compliance report, say, two weeks later and follow up with the stragglers.

  2. Draconian: Do an advertisement like above, but set a mandatory deadline to enforce the update. That way, users have the flexibility to install the update, but get schwacked with it if they wait too long. You can make this a little nicer by sending out an email warning people about this...

  3. Use a startup script: since your users typically power off their workstations at the end of the day, you can write a startup script that runs a WMI check to see if the update has been installed, and if not, run the install at that time. The advantage to this is that the installer will run before the user gets the chance to start a conversation with the client. If this is something you haven't done before, let me know and I can provide you with a sample script.

Of course, you can do a combination of these tactics to get complete coverage.


What about using the "Only when no user is logged on" option. See the Environment tab of an Advertisement, the drop-down next to Program can run: