How to setup Microsoft Teams in Windows Virtual Desktop?
Microsoft Windows Virtual Desktop , or WVD in short is a born in the cloud “Desktop-As-a-Service platform service offering built on top of Microsoft Azure. It enables a secure, remote desktop experience on any device from anywhere. In order to support remote workforce you need to have the right productivity tools installed on your WVD VMs like Microsoft 365 suite, OneDrive etc. Many organizations have chosen to adopt Microsoft Teams on WVD to support communication between remote workers. Although Installing Microsoft Teams is a no brainer, it works differently in VDI environments. As an IT administrator you need to be aware of all the prerequisites, required drivers, Teams optimization settings and be aware of some limitations. This is an attempt to document all the steps on this page.
Prerequisites
Before you can use Microsoft Teams on Windows Virtual Desktop, you’ll need to do these things:
- Prepare your network for Microsoft Teams.
- Install the Windows Desktop client on a Windows 10 or Windows 10 IoT Enterprise device that meets the Microsoft Teams hardware requirements for Teams on a Windows PC.
- Connect to a Windows 10 Multi-session or Windows 10 Enterprise virtual machine (VM).
Step 1: Enable media optimization for Microsoft Teams
Set the following registry key on the host:
- From the start menu, run RegEdit as an administrator. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Teams. Create the Teams key if it doesn’t already exist.
- Create the following value for the Teams key:
- Name the new DWORD IsWVDEnvironment, and give the DWORD the value 1
Step 2: Install the Teams WebSocket Service
Install the latest Remote Desktop WebRTC Redirector Service on your VM image. If you encounter an installation error, install the latest Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable and try again.
Open Apps & features to check if the installation was successful.
Step 3: Install the Teams
Download the Teams MSI package that matches your environment. We recommend using the 64-bit installer on a 64-bit operating system.
- Per user installation (default)
msiexec /i <path_to_msi> /l*v <install_logfile_name> ALLUSERS=1- Per machine installation
#Use this command when you are installing Teams in WVD
msiexec /i <path_to_msi> /l*v <install_logfile_name> ALLUSER=1Step 4: Verify Teams Media Optimizations
Verify Teams media optimizations are installed successfully. Launch the Teams Client. Click on your profile photo >> About >> Version
Step 5: Customize the RDP Properties
You can customize RDP properties in your host pool section to redirect audio, video and multi-monitor experience.
As you see below my local PC’s audio and video drivers are redirected to a virtual desktop.
Ideally you’ll install these things in your golden image and provision a WVD host pool using the golden image. That way all your VMs will inherit the same settings. Robin Hobo (Microsoft MVP) has written an excellent article on building a golden image for WVD. Check it out here
References
Teams Limitations on WVD
Customize RDP properties