Business Premium reverting to basic client

Owned by Maarten Meijer
Last updated: Feb 19, 2018
2 min read

When a customer uses a Business Premium license on a user in Office 365 the license will miss a few required sub-licenses for Skype for Business. This will result in the following missing features:

  • Voicemail
  • Call forwarding

  • Simultaneous-ring

To add the missing features to Skype for Business 2015 a different client has to be installed. However installing a Skype for Business MAK installer next to a Click-to-Run installer is not possible due to license restrictions. Microsoft does not allow to install the same version of two different installer types.

To solve this problem the user can install the Lync 2013 / Skype for Business 2015 client next to their normal installation. This will result in the full feature set. The best results are achieved when the normale skype for business is not installed during the click-to-run installation.

Options

  • Get an enterprise license (your license cost from us will be lower), E3+
  • Download the Skype for Business 2015 client
  • Install a standalone ProPlus installation without the Office 365 installer


Installing Skype for Business 2015

  1. Download the installer through SoftApp-distribution support channels. You can request the download through support@softapp-distribution.com or create a ticket in the portal.

  2. Open the ISO and click Setup.exe.

  3. Go through the installation process.

  4. Start the client (Skype for Business 2015 or Lync 2013).

The client will automatically give the Skype for Business look-and-feel. 

Removing the Skype for Business client from CTR

1) Download the Office 2016 deployment tool (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49117)

2) Set the "configuration.xml" file as follows:

  • Product ID to "O365BusinessRetail"
  • Add the following line "inside" the <product> tag: <ExcludeAppID="Lync" />
  • Double check the "bitness" of the installed version.

3) Once done, open an elevated (Run as Administrator) command prompt or Powershell. Navigate to the folder you extracted the files too.

4) Run the following command:

  • setup.exe /configure configuration.xml

5) Once the installer has finished (if you selected "silent" mode, you will not receive any notification of the completion).

6) Now run the installation package, available from the Welcome email (how do I resend a welcome email?).

7) Once installed, please run all available Office and Windows updates to update to Skype for Business 2015.

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