I've created a custom MSP for Office 2013 using the OCT and I've changed Lync to be not available and locked. When I install Office, Lync is not there however the minute I install any Lync update, doesn't matter which, all the Lync files suddenly are there and it's shown in the Office start menu group.

First thing I want to clarify is that my understanding of Office updates is they're installed regardless of what products you have installed. We use SCCM to deploy updates and if I deploy a Lync update to a group of machines with and without Lync they're all going to install it, this is expected and normal behaviour I believe.
With that in mind when I look at my OCT file I don't have Publisher, InfoPath, Lync or OneDrive for Business selected. I install the Office 2013 package with the OCT file and then scan for updates, I get updates installed for all four products I didn't select as installed and none of them are enabled/installed besides Lync.

I have also confirmed that if I install Office 2013 and then look in appwiz.cpl that Lync is showing as not available yet after installing any Lync update it is enabled.

Does anyone know why this is the case and how I can stop it?

I agree with all your statements. We've seen the same thing on our machines where Lync is set to NotInstalled during setup (i.e. when a Lync update is applied, the feature state changes to enabled/local).

As a result, we are withholding all Lync updates for those machines.

I'm not sure of another solution, I've not noticed any solutions so far...

Hi,

Due to the environment limitation I can't reproduce this issue yet, but I admit I've seen some reports about this issue that Lync will be activated if you install the Lync updates, it seems to be "by design" or a known issue so far.

In this case, you may select Microsoft Advisory Services option:

http://support.microsoft.com/gp/advisoryservice

Regards,

Melon Chen

Forum Support