Configuring picture from a web site in Lync 2013

When Lync 2013 shipped we did not provide the user interface to allow the user to configure his/her picture to be available on a web site (sometimes referred as photo url). With the November 7, 2013 update to Lync 2013 we have added this capability to Lync 2013. We have also changed the layout a little bit in the My Picture options page.

The ability to configure the picture from a web address is controlled by a new ClientPolicy entry called EnablePresencePhotoOptions. It can only be set via the Lync Server Management Shell (see below for an example on how to do it).

When the entry is set to True Lync 2013 will display a 3rd radio button in the My Pictures options page, as shown below.

The user can then select the radio button and enter the Url to the picture. The maximum size of the picture is controlled by the ClientPolicy parameter MaxPhotoSizeKB. In the screenshot below I've set this value to 1000 and that is reflected in the user interface. The picture at the Url needs to be publically available without requiring a password for accessing it.

In the first screenshot you can also see the change in the layout of the page. We are no longer showing 2 different sizes of the picture in use, just one. We will show a 200x200 pixels version of the picture, either scaled up or down as needed.

Here is an example of how to set the policy entry using Lync Server Management Shell

  • $pe=New-CsClientPolicyEntry -Name EnablePresencePhotoOptions -Value True
  • $po=Get-CsClientPolicy
  • $po.PolicyEntry.Add($pe)
  • Set-CsClientPolicy -Instance $po