j_rodstein, bummer about Windows 8. I do see they replied that Win8 isn't yet supported.
Can you be clear on which registry entries you removed? I don't want to remove everything Lync related as I have some Lync server core tools for 2013 installed as I administer Lync from my machine. But I also tried this on a clean image with no Lync with the same issue so far.
I don't believe the bit-ness of the VM should affect based on the chart in this document: Troubleshooting: MS Lync 2013 with View Integration » myvirtualcloud.net
