Lync 2013 Client has PowerPoint, Whiteboard, Poll and Q & A greyed out

Problem

You’ve successfully deployed Lync Server 2013 and began testing features in the Lync 2013 client but quickly noticed that the following options are greyed out:

  • PowerPoint
  • Whiteboard
  • Poll
  • Q & A

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Solution

While there could be various reasons why these options would be greyed out, one of the more obvious reasons is that you forgot to check the checkbox:

Conferencing (includes audio, video, and application sharing)

… during your Lync front-end server deployment:

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To correct the issue, simply launch the topology builder and enable the feature

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Once the option is enabled, publish the topology, launch the Lync Server 2013 – Deployment Wizard and rerun the Setup or Remove Lync Server Components to install the missing components:

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Once completed, the options should now be available:

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