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Forcing Use of Lync Web App to Join a Conference

  • Article

Overview

When you receive and click on a meeting request to join a Lync-based meeting, If you have Lync Client 2010 installed it will be used to join that meeting.  What if there's a problem joining the conference using the Lync thick client (there are scenarios where it may not work if there are problems with the company hosting the Lync meeting's Federation setup, etc).  Or, maybe you just want to join the meeting and use the Lync Web App instead of the Lync thick client?

Unfortunately, there's no button you can click to do this...and if you're using IE8 and above, the IE window quickly closes after you click on the link in your email so that you can't access the "Use Lync Web App" link.

However, there is a way to force the use of Lync Web App.

Solution

To force connecting to a Lync meeting using the Lync Web App instead of the Lync thick client, do the following:

  1. Open a web browser window
  2. Copy & paste the URL for joining the meeting that you received.  But do NOT press ENTER yet!
  3. Append the following string to the URL: "?SL=1" (without the double quotes)

For example, if the URL to join the Lync meeting given is:

https://meet.contoso.com/john.smith/ZR2RJ141

Change it to:

https://meet.contoso.com/john.smith/ZR2RJ141?SL=1

Comments

  • Anonymous
    August 08, 2012
    Thanks for your blog, it help me alot, i was looking solution for same problem.

  • Anonymous
    August 17, 2012
    Sorry, but this doenst work if you only have Lync 2010 thick client installed. Lync 2010 Web app (attendee) wont install after thus is installed.

  • Anonymous
    January 24, 2014
    Thanks alot for this, really helped us. Our customers got this problem while doing a live presentation and we had to have a quick fix, luckely this helped. Thanks again!

  • Anonymous
    March 14, 2014
    Hi, good solution but is there any way to add this url in the meeting request ? (below the principal URL )

  • Anonymous
    April 30, 2014
    Thanks - great solution !

  • Anonymous
    May 08, 2014
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 12, 2014
    works also with lync 2013 Client ,,,,,

  • Anonymous
    June 02, 2014
    Hi guys, do you know if there's a way to force the use of the Silverlight version after the server has been "upgraded" to the new non-silverlight web client? Unfortunately there's no way to run the non-silverlight plugin under Linux, but with some effor the Silverlight-based client worked relatively well.

  • Anonymous
    August 20, 2014
    Hi Guys,

    I am looking to make this change permanently. We do not want to use the full Lync client at all, only the web client. Though with the new Office 365 install, we can not un-check Lync through "Programs and Features" like we could in previous versions of Office. Any idea how we can set it to disable the full Lync client?

    Thanks,
    Chris

  • Anonymous
    December 18, 2014
    I have the reverse happen. I want the lync client to be used but one company PM meetings always go to the Lync Web Client. All others go to the Lync client. Help her calls going to the web client creates a lot of issues.

  • Anonymous
    April 01, 2015
    How to get the other way around ? I mean my Lync conference always start within the Browser but I would like to get this done thru the Lync 2010 app... How to do this ?

  • Anonymous
    May 08, 2015
    I am also interest in knowing how to do the opposite, I want my meeting to open in my lync client, not the browser

  • Anonymous
    May 13, 2015
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    July 01, 2015
    Absolutely fantastic solution. I was trying for hours to get this problem fixed when trying to connect with a team that wasn't in my enterprise address book. Thank you so much for providing this solution.

  • Anonymous
    July 27, 2015
    A very helpful tip for external invitations! Thanks!

  • Anonymous
    September 03, 2015
    Amazing !! Worked for me. Thanks.

  • Anonymous
    October 15, 2015
    Thanks for the great solution.....many time i got the escalation from the client for this issue.

  • Anonymous
    November 13, 2015
    Excellent. It worked, thanks a ton.

  • Anonymous
    January 13, 2016
    Microsoft Lync Attendee do not lauch automaticly while put IE by default Browser. I tried with the ?SL=1 in the link ... Attendee still not start ! :(

  • Anonymous
    January 29, 2016
    I just want to say that I like your posting. In fact I am using your site regularly. Your articles are very effective and i am very thankful to you for sharing this site with knowledgeable content .