Disabling Lync Click to Call

Lync has a "smart" feature, where it makes all phonenumbers clickable. Basically what is happening is the Lync Click to Call add-in for Internet Explorer is detecting phonenumbers on all webpages, and then the add-in rewrites the HTML for each phonenumber, in order to add Click to Call functionality to that phonenumber.

The problem is that the Click to Call add-in is not able to detect when the phonenumber is in a Rich Text form field (like on a blog like this), and so adds the Click-to-Call code here as well. This causes the modified phonenumber to be permanent for ALL people reading the resulting post, rather than just the people that actually have Lync installed.

I am sure there must be a way for a webmaster to tell the Click to Call add-in not to mess around with the Rich Text form fields. At least Microsoft SharePoints Rich Text form fields seems immune to the effects of the add-in. Or perhaps the add-in simply detects that it's on a SharePoint site?

Regardless, I decided to simply disable the Click to Call number detection, with the option to let the user enable it again, if they wanted the functionality. The way I did this, was to use a User Configuration Group Policy Preferences to make the necessary changes to the registry.

First, set the "EnableBHOSmartTags" value to 0. If you have not deployed Lync 2013 yet, this is all you need to do.

Hive:       HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key path:   Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Lync
Value name: EnableBHOSmartTags
Value type: REG_DWORD
Value data: 0x0 (0)

I don't know if it makes any difference, but for modifications that I want made at the user level, I always check the "Run in logged-on's user's security context (user policy option)".

Then, if you already deployed Lync 2013 and want it disabled for all users next time they launch Internet Explorer, you delete the "EnableBHOSmartTags" value found under the users InternetRegistry

Hive:       HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key path:   Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\InternetRegistry\REGISTRY\USER\%LoginUserSid%\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Lync
Value name: EnableBHOSmartTags

In order to let the user enable the feature again, you need to check the "Apply once and do not reapply" option.
Please note that the key path is one line, and also note the %LoginUserSid% variable used.


To show what the fuss is about, here is an example of the extra HTML that Lync's Click to Call add-in adds to each phonenumber:
An example phonenumber (without the Click to Call HTML, unless you've got Lync it has added it):
+45 88888888

How it looks when Lync Click to Call have had its grubby fingers in it:
+45 88888888

And how the code looks:

<span class="baec5a81-e4d6-4674-97f3-e9220f0136c1" style="white-space: nowrap;">+45 88888888<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7336973539828176427#" style="border: currentColor; bottom: 0px; display: inline; float: none; height: 16px; left: 0px; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; position: static !important; right: 0px; top: 0px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: nowrap; width: 16px;" title="Call: +45 88888888"><img src="data:image/png;base64,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" style="border: currentColor; bottom: 0px; display: inline; float: none; height: 16px; left: 0px; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; position: static !important; right: 0px; top: 0px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: nowrap; width: 16px;" title="Call: +45 88888888" /></a></span>