I enjoyed using custom presence in Communicator 2007, but when our enterprise switched to Lync 2010 a few months ago, my custom presence migrated through until I switched to a new PC, then the old method of enabling custom presence failed.  Why?  One registry entry…

Here’s how to do it: Create a string key in HKCUSoftwarePoliciesMicrosoftCommunicator called CustomStateURL and give it a value of the path to an OCS presence XML file, such as file:///c:/program files/Microsoft Office Communicator/OCSPresence.xml

Now, also create a DWORD key in the same location called EnableSIPHighSecurityMode and give it a value of 0.  This entry wasn’t needed in Communicator 2007, and is something an administrator can turn off in Lync, but can be handled individually at your PC also.

Finally, make sure the OCS presence XML file is in the path you specified above and log off/on.  You should be good to go!

The link to the ZIP file that has both the .reg file and .xml file is here.  Enjoy!