
In this guide I’ll show you how to deploy and install the new Teams for VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) client, and how to enable Teams Media Optimization on VMware Horizon.
If you haven’t already reviewed my old post Microsoft Teams VDI Optimization for VMware Horizon which covered the old client and optimizations, the new Microsoft Teams app also requires special considerations and installation instructions for VDI environments.
You can run the old and new Teams applications side by side in your environment as you transition users.
Let’s cover what the new Microsoft Teams app is about, and how to install it in your VDI deployment.
Please note that while the new Teams client is in GA, VDI support is in public preview.
The New Microsoft Teams App
On October 05, 2023, Microsoft announced the availability of the new Microsoft Teams application for Windows and Mac computers. This application is a complete rebuild from the old client, and provides numerous enhancements with performance, resource utilization, and memory management.
Ultimately, it’s way faster, and consumes way less memory. And fortunately for us, it supports media optimizations for VDI environments.
My close friend and colleague, mobile jon, did a fantastic in-depth Deep Dive into the New Microsoft Teams and it’s inner workings that I highly recommend reading.
Interestingly enough, it uses the same media optimization channels for VDI as the old client did, so enablement and/or migrating from the old version is very simple if you’re running VMware Horizon, Citrix, AVD, or Windows 365.
Install New Teams for VDI
While installing the new Teams is fairly simple for non-VDI environment (by simply either enabling the new version in the Teams Admin portal, or using your application manager to deploy the installer), a special method is required to deploy on your VDI images, whether persistent or non-persistent.
Please Note: At the time of this post, the new Teams client auto-updates, even when using the bulk machine mode with the bootstrapper installer. In the future, Microsoft will be releasing a registry key to disable auto-updates for non-persistent VDI golden images.
You will also need to enable Microsoft Teams Media Optimization for the VDI platform you are using (in my case and example, VMware Horizon).
Considerations for New Teams on VDI
- At this time, you cannot disable auto-updates (this can be disabled via a registry key in the future, listed as “coming soon”).
- New Teams client app uses the same VDI media optimization channels as the old teams (for VMware Horizon, Citrix, AVD, and W365)
- If you have already enabled Media Optimization for Teams on VDI for the old version, you can simply install the client using the special bulk installer for all users as shown below, as the new client uses the existing media optimizations.
- While it is recommended to uninstall the old client and install the new client, you can choose to run both versions side by side together, providing an option to your users as to which version they would like to use.
Enable Media Optimization for Microsoft Teams
If you haven’t previously for the old client, you’ll need to enable the Teams Media Optimizations for VDI for your VDI platform.
For VMware Horizon, we’ll create a GPO and set the “Enable HTML5 Features” and “Enable Media Optimization for Microsoft Teams”, to “Enabled”. If you have done this for the old Teams app, you can skip this.
Please see below for the GPO setting locations:
Computer Configuration -> Policies -> Administrative Templates -> VMware View Agent Configuration -> VMware HTML5 Features -> Enable VMware HTML5 Features
Computer Configuration -> Policies -> Administrative Templates -> VMware View Agent Configuration -> VMware HTML5 Features -> VMware WebRTC Redirection Features -> Enable Media Optimization for Microsoft Teams
When installing the VMware Horizon client on Windows computers, you’ll need to make sure you check and enable the “Media Optimization for Microsoft Teams” option on the installer.
If you are using a thin client or zero client, you’ll need to make sure you have the required firmware version installed, and any applicable vendor plugins installed and/or configurables enabled.
Install New Teams on VDI
At this time, we will now install the new Teams app on to both non-persistent images, and persistent VDI VM guests:
- Download the new Microsoft Teams Bootstrapper: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2243204&clcid=0x409
- On your persistent or non-persistent VM, run the following command as an administrator:
teamsbootstrapper.exe -p
- Restart the VM (and/or seal your image for deployment)
See below for an example of the deployment:
C:\Users\Administrator.DOMAIN\Downloads>teamsbootstrapper.exe -p
{
"success": true
}
You’ll note that running the command returns success equals true, and Teams is now installed for all users on this machine.
Additionally, the Teams Boot Strap utility can also remove teams for all users on this machine as well by using the “-x” flag. Please see below for all the options for “teamsbootstrapper.exe”:
C:\Users\Administrator.DOMAIN\Downloads>teamsbootstrapper.exe --help
Provisioning program for Microsoft Teams.
Usage: teamsbootstrapper.exe [OPTIONS]
Options:
-p, --provision-admin Provision Teams for all users on this machine.
-x, --deprovision-admin Remove Teams for all users on this machine.
-h, --help Print help
Install New Teams on VMware App Volumes / Citrix App Layering
Using the New Teams bootstrapper, it appears that it evades and doesn’t work with App Packaging and App attaching technologies such as VMware App Volumes and Citrix Application layering.
The New Teams bootstrapper downloads and installs an MSIX app package to the computer running the bootstrapper.
To deploy and install new Teams on VMware App Volumes or Citrix App Layering (or other app technologies), you’ll most likely need to download and import the MSIX package in to the application manager and deploy using that.
Conclusion
It’s great news that we finally have a better performing Microsoft Teams client that supports VDI optimizations. However, it’s unfortunate that we cannot disable the auto-update functionality for non-persistent environments as we do not want update processes to run in vain consuming resources.
I would recommend testing the new Teams client in your VDI environment before deploying to production.
Additional Links
- Bulk deploy the new Microsoft Teams desktop client – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn
- New Microsoft Teams for Virtualized Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn
- Teams for Virtualized Desktop Infrastructure – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn (Old Teams Client)
- Media Optimization for Microsoft Teams (vmware.com)