Specify the Client Versions Supported in Your Organization
Topic Last Modified: 2011-07-17
Microsoft Lync Server 2010 enables you to specify the version of clients that are supported in your environment. When two clients that are running different versions interact, the features that are available to either client can be limited by the capabilities of the other client. To make the greatest use of features included in Lync Server 2010 and to improve the overall user experience, you can use the client version filter to restrict the client versions that are used in your Lync Server environment. By using the client version filter, you can also help reduce costs associated with supporting multiple client versions.
In addition to creating a global policy, you can create client version policies for a particular service or site, or user-scoped policies that can be assigned to individual users. The user-scoped client version policy can be assigned to individual users from the Users group in Lync Server Control Panel.
Note
Because anonymous users are not associated with a user, site, or service, anonymous users are affected by global-level policies only.
Important
Filters are listed in order of precedence. For example, if you have a filter that allows clients running version 1.5 or later to connect, followed by a filter that blocks clients running a version earlier than 2.0, the first filter takes precedence, and clients running version 1.5 are allowed to connect.
To edit the default client version policy
Open a browser window, and then enter the Admin URL to open the Lync Server Control Panel. For details about the different methods you can use to start Lync Server Control Panel, see Open Lync Server Administrative Tools.
In the left navigation bar, click Clients.
Note
The Client Version Policy tab is selected by default.
On the Client Version Policy page, double-click the Global policy in the list.
In Edit Client Version Policy, do one of the following:
Click New to create a new client version rule.
Click one of the defined client types in the list, and then click Show details….
Note
You can use wildcards to indicate the client type.
In Application, select a client type.
Under Version number, do the following:
In Major version, type the number that corresponds to the major release of the client.
In Minor version, type the number that corresponds to the minor release of the client.
In Build, type the number that corresponds to the major and minor release of the client.
In Update, type the number that corresponds to the updated release of the client.
Note
You can use wildcards to indicate the client version number.
To specify the matching operation for the client version you specified in the preceding steps, in Comparison operation, click one of the following:
Same as
Is not
Newer than
Newer than or same as
Older than
Older than or same as
To specify the action to perform when the criteria in the preceding steps are met, click one of the following in Action:
To allow the client to log on, click Allow.
To allow the client to log on and receive updates from Windows Server Update Service or Microsoft Update, click Allow and Upgrade. This action is available only when Microsoft Lync 2010 is selected.
Note
Selecting this action causes a notification to appear the next time users sign into Lync 2010. The notification states that an update is available, even if updates have not yet been released to Windows Server Update Service or Microsoft Update. To avoid confusion, you should choose this action only after updates become available.
To allow the client to log on and display a message about where to download another client version, click Allow with URL. You specify the URL later in this procedure.
To prevent the client from logging on, click Block.
To prevent the client from logging on and allow the client to receive updates from Windows Server Update Service or Microsoft Update, click Block and Upgrade. This action is available only when the Lync 2010 application is selected.
To prevent the client from logging on and display a message about where to download another client version, click Block with URL. You specify the URL later in this procedure.
(Optional) If you clicked Allow with URL or Block with URL in the previous step, type the client download URL to include in the message in URL.
Click OK, and then click Commit.