Microsoft have released a Lync Metro App – available free through the Windows Store – Lync in Windows 8.

On first run – select if you want to run Lync in the background – this means that Lync will run regardless of whether you have opened it up first.

You can also use this Lync Application to join as an attendee to an existing Lync Meeting.

1. Type in your sign-in address – [email protected]
2. It will then launch your username and password for example – domainusername.
3. Type in your organisations domain name and your username and password and click Ok to login.

Having access to an exchange mailbox on a Mac or iMac is very useful – especially if you are a designer in a prominent Windows domain environment – setup exchange email account on mac is incredibly easy on the client site – as long as the relevant ports have been opened up allowing you to connect from outside a Windows domain.

1. Open the Apple menu
2. Click System Preferences
3. Click Internet Accounts.
4. Click the Add (+) button.
5. Click Exchange in the list of services.
6. Enter the information.
7. Click Continue.
8. Enter a description for the account (for example, Work or Exchange).
9. In the Server Address field, enter the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) for the companies exchange server.
10. Click Continue.
11. Make sure the Contacts and Calendar checkboxes are selected to automatically set up those apps.
12. Click Done.

Note: To access an Exchange server from a Mac outside the organization’s network, confirm with the server administrator that port 443 is open on the firewall and Exchange Web Services (EWS) is enabled on the server.

Share files on a Mac with Windows can be extremely useful and luckily for us extremely easy to setup and manage.

1. Choose Apple menu
2. Select System Preferences, then click Sharing.
3. Select File Sharing, then click Options.
4. Select “Share files and folders using SMB (Windows)”
5. Select a user group or users you would like to share with and click Ok
6. Click Done.

Update caching on OSX server can be easily managed through the Server application.

It is recommended to turn on updating caching to allow osx clients to be able to draw Apple updates from the server without having to branch out onto the internet – decreasing broadband data usage and network traffic.

1. Navigate to: Applications
2. Open Server
3. Select Caching
4. Click On/Off to turn on the Software Update caching service

1. Click Start
2. Click Administrative Tools
3. Click Active Directory Administrative Center
4. Click on Add Navigation Node
5. Click Connect to other domains.. _(on the lower right of the window)
6. Type the domain name you want to connect to and click ok.

Note: This is only valid for trusted federated domains; this method of connecting uses your local credentials and in order to run as separate credentials you will need to launch the Administrative Center using Runas.