I’ve just posted a quick run down of the Windows 8 developer preview install. One of the first things I was interested to see was how it would work with Lync (big surprise 
)
I was running on a Remote desktop to a Hyper-V VM.
I copied Lync installer to the desktop
The installer ran as expected. When complete Lync Started and signed in, in the ‘desktop’ mode. Everything is pretty much the same, but with a slightly different windows chrome.
But, as per this post, there is no start menu in the desktop mode. The way to Launch apps is now the ‘start screen’
To the right of my start screen, I found 3 new ‘tiles’/icons
I could then move the Lync icon around the screen
Clicking the tile dropped you back into the desktop mode.
When I sent an IM to the client while in the ‘start screen’ I didn’t get any toast or alert.
Only in the desktop mode did I get a toast
Window switching
EDIT: Dustin Hannifin pointed out that the Windows global spell check also works in Lync which is nice.
So no big surprises, the Lync client works as I think any other legacy/current app will work (Remember its pre-beta and subject to change), which for Lync in particular isn’t very practical. I’m sure in time we will see someone write a “windows 8” style UI for Lync to take advantages of the new style and development tools for Windows 8 and I also expect the next version of Lync will take advantage of things like the Live tiles and lock screen notifications to really maximise the experience on windows 8, particularly for touch.
Happy to hear your thoughts or test anything specific if anyone has any questions.
Good Information and Good Features in Lync client on windows 8
Glad it’s useful thanks for the comment
Thanks for doing this.
I’m about to install win8 on a MSI windpad 110w and the first app i was going to install was lync
I’m really looking foward to trying it on the samsung series 7 slate.
nothing about lync is going to be touch friendly (even running it in windows 7)
No problem, thanks for the reply
Does Lunc2010 IM will popup in middle of screen instead of being flashing in the taskbar?
On desktop mode it acts just like on windows 7. When in metro start screen you don’t seen to get any notification
[...] Edit: Tom at Lync’d Up has some more detail on the Lync/Win8 experience. [...]
Tested and running under preview on a 4yr old Lenovo x200 tablet, runs way better than I expected, in fact preview makes this tablet very usable again after starting to feel a bit tired using 7.
Thanks for the walkthrough using Windows 8, Tom! Keep up the good work
Cheers Rui, glad you found it useful!
Tom
The spell cheker news is great. Half the time I can’t even read my own IM beacuse of the bad spelling.:-)
Yes, I use PhraseExpress which usually covers me for typical typo’s, but having it in the OS will be great.
When I try to join a Lync meeting by clicking on “Join Meeting” in an Outlook email I get a “Your 64-bit browser is preventing you from joining the meeting. If you have Lync installed, click to join. Join Using Lync”
When click on Join Using Lync it just reshows the 64-bit browser message.
Any ideas? This is a Samsung Slate 7 with Windows 8 Dev Preview.
Interesting, our dev guys have one of those slates. I’ll see if I can do some tests.
Tom