Topic Last Modified: 2011-05-11

Before you deploy Microsoft Lync Server 2010 clients, you should check and, if necessary, configure the policies and in-band provisioning settings described in Key Client Policies and Settings in the Planning documentation.

There are several client bootstrapping policies that you should configure before users sign in to the server for the first time. Because these policies take effect before the client signs in and begins receiving in-band provisioning settings from the server, you can use Group Policy to configure them. One way to define Group Policy settings is by using an administrative template (.adm) file, which contains specific information about the Group Policy settings the client implements, where policies are stored, and how to configure policies.

Policies configured on the server take precedence over Group Policy settings and client options configured by the user. The following table summarizes the order in which settings take precedence when a conflict occurs.

Group Policy Precedence

Precedence Location or Method of Setting

1

Lync Server 2010 in-band provisioning

2

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Communicator

3

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Communicator

4

The Lync - Options dialog box in Microsoft Lync 2010

To define Group Policy settings by using the Lync 2010 administrative template file

  1. Copy the Communicator.adm file from your installation disk to the %windir%/inf folder.

  2. Use the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Group Policy Object Editor to enable or disable specific policy settings.

    Note:
    You can deploy Lync 2010 Group Policy without affecting users who are running previous versions of Microsoft Office Communicator (Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2 or Microsoft Office Communicator 2007).