I use w8.1, office 2013 and lync 2013 on an Asus laptop with an i7 processor.

Whenever I try to start lync from Outlook it fails, and need repair, which never works. So I have copy the Lync-link into a browser to join a meeting. This works when the link is included in the invitation, but sometimes the only way to join is to click on the lync Icon in the ribbon and then I have to manually type the link into IE.

Today I traced a successful startup from the browser, and a failed one from Outlook. The differences between the environment Outlook hands over to Lync (which failes)  compared to what IE hands over are:

Outlook (fails):
CommonProgramFiles=C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files
PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE=x86
PROCESSOR_ARCHITEW6432=AMD64
ProgramFiles=C:\Program Files (x86)

IE (ok):
CommonProgramFiles=C:\Program Files\Common Files
PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE=AMD64
ProgramFiles=C:\Program Files

I.e. it looks as Outlook don't use the defined system environment, and instead creates one that unfortunately looks faulty.

I hope this can help MS to get this quite annoying fault sorted...

This sounds like a Internet Explorer problem, are you able to open any other hyperlinks that are sent in emails?

If you are not able to open any hyperlinks, then you need to try reset your internet explorer browser or  try these suggestions

http://www.timeatlas.com/outlook-hyperlinks-fail-to-work/

Quite the opposite. Everything in IE works. Everything in Outlook works except links that results in starting up lync. That Always ends up with a failure. And when I trace how Outlook starts lync and compare with how IE starts lync, there are some diffrences that I list above. And since the IE call works, I assume it is Outlook that have messed up the Environment. But if this assumption is wrong, I would like to know when ProgramFiles shall be set to C:\Program Files, and when it shall be set to C:\Program Files (x86)...

/Peter

That's based on what version office you installed. If you installed x64 version of Office, then the components will be installed in "Program Files" and it was 32bit, then it will be installed on Program Files (x86). What I can see is that, you have installed 32 bit applications in x64 based OS

Hi,

You can do the following steps to troubleshooting the issue:

1. Please disable the Lync conference add-in from Outlook interface and then enable it again.

2. Exist Lync 2013 and Outlook, repair Office 2013.

After finishing the steps above, test the issue again.

Best Regards,
Eason Huang

That's based on what version office you installed. If you installed x64 version of Office, then the components will be installed in "Program Files" and it was 32bit, then it will be installed on Program Files (x86). What I can see is that, you have installed 32 bit applications in x64 based OS

Hi,

You can do the following steps to troubleshooting the issue:

1. Please disable the Lync conference add-in from Outlook interface and then enable it again.

2. Exist Lync 2013 and Outlook, repair Office 2013.

After finishing the steps above, test the issue again.

Best Regards,
Eason