Category: Application

I’ve been having an issue with Excel 2013 (from the Office 365 Click to Run installer) for a while now that I finally decided to dig a little deeper on.

I found that when I was double clicking on a file from Windows Explorer to open in Excel, it would take 15-30 seconds before the application would appear.

However, if I opened Excel from the start menu, or through a “Run” command, it would appear instantly.

I tried many different things to isolate this issue such as checking conflicting processes, watching processmon, and eliminating the network as a source of problems.

 

Eventually I hit the right combination of google keywords and came across this post.

 

Based on that recommendation I disabled Cortana and immediately saw improved response times from Excel. Hopefully Microsoft fixes this bug in time for Office 365 integration with Cortana!

 

My organization uses Office 365 for Exchange and Lync service, although Lync has recently been set up as on-premise.

For a while now the low-resolution photo of Lync has been bothering me, so I set out trying to find a way to use a high resolution photo instead.

Microsoft allows a 648×648 photo to be stored in an Exchange 2013 mailbox, which is then used for Lync.

To begin, set up your environment to connect to Office 365 with Powershell:

• Find a Windows Server 2008 R2 host and perform the rest of the steps on it
  • I found this wouldn’t work on my Windows 8.1 host, or a Windows 7 host
• Install the Microsoft Online Services Sign-In Assistant
• Install the Azure Active Directory Module
• Create a .ps1 file with the following contents:

$NPO = New-PSSessionOption -ProxyAccessType IEConfig
$cred = Get-Credential
$Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionURI https://ps.outlook.com/powershell/?proxymethod=rps -Credential $cred -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection -SessionOption $NPO
Import-PSSession $Session
Import-Module MSOnline
Connect-MsolService -Credential $cred

• Using Powershell, run the cmdlet
• When prompted for credentials, enter your Office 365 administrative credentials
• Now use the following Powershell commands:

$photo = ([Byte[]] $(Get-Content -Path "C:\Users\jmiles\Desktop\IMG_0067_Lync.jpg" -Encoding Byte -ReadCount 0))
Set-UserPhoto -Identity "Jeff Miles" -PictureData $photo -Confirm:$False
Set-UserPhoto -Identity "Jeff Miles" -Save -Confirm:$False

Replace the photo location and the identity name in the commands above.

 

That’s it! Now your photo should be nice and clear when in a Lync call.

 

Sources:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj688150.aspx

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/25199254/automated-script-to-change-user-photos-in-microsoft-exchange-2013-powershell/26150403#26150403

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj151815.aspx#bkmk_installmodule