Lync 2013 client and and pictures from custom URL

I was very excited to find that custom picture form URL feature is back!

With this function available once again, the Administrator can enable it in order to solve an issue that haunted many users for quite some time – users might have set Custom Picture URL which is no longer accessible or the picture is not recent.

Because the functionality was removed at some point, such users got stuck with old picture and could not change it.

To enable “Show picture from a web site” on Lync 2013 client, two conditions must be satisfied:

1. Lync 2013 client updated at minimum to September 2013 Lync client update (currently we are at November 7, 2013).
2. 
   Administrator must enable it via Client Policy.

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

Note that the example above modifies Site policy “NorthAmerica”. We cannot update all policies in "bulk" - must be done one at the time. To update the Global Client Policy:

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

We find the new Policy Entry created:

After restart, Lync client will receive the new setting via inband provisioning: