Instant message sent from Lync Web App displays wrong symbols in Lync 2013

Problem:

Cyrillic characters are not readable in Lync 2013 rich client when send from Lync Web application client. Plus the following characters from languages:

• Ukrainian
• Macedonian (Macedonia, FYROM)
• Bulgarian
• Serbian (Cyrillic)
• Belarusian (Belarus)
• Greek
• Japanese
• Arabic
• Hebrew
• Farsi
• Kazakh

Microsoft’s Support answer:

Thank you very much for your patience throughout the work on your support request.
I am archiving the case at this time. The issue is planned to be fixed in the next Cumulative Update for Lync 2013, planned for October 2013.

If there will be any obstacles implementing the fix or change in the schedule for the Cumulative Update, we will let you know.

Here is a summary of the key points of the case for your records:

Analysis

1) The problem can be reproduced issue in lab.

2) The issue is seen when the receiving Lync 2013 client machine has set the language for Non-Unicode Programs in Control panel to “Russian”

3) Workaround: Set the language for Non-Unicode language to English (a language captured in codepage Windows 1250/1252 )

4) While working on the repro we encountered a conversation from Unicode (used by LWA) to the Cyrillic codepage 1252. Likely the aim would be to keep the encoding at Unicode to be consistent among the products.

5) Lync 2010 WebApp used a different encoding mechanism for the body test (application\octetstream) instead of multipart\text now in LWA 2013.

6) We have requested a hotfix with the Lync Product Team to address the failing display of Cyrillic characters when using a combination of Lync 2013 Web App and Lync 2013 rich client. There was support from the Mircosoft Russian account team, because a large customer community is affected by this.

7) The Product Team acknowledged this request and plans to deliver a fix for it in the next cumulative update, planned for October 2013.

UPDATE!!

To resolve this issue, install the following update: