Because of the world wide epidemic of COVID-19 a lot of employees are working at home. The last few months the usage of online/cloud meeting platforms has exponentially grown and because of this a lot of companies had to implement MS teams much faster then planned. In order to use teams you can use the online teams or install the Teams app, you don’t need admin rights in order to install it on a computer.
So an employee could go and use a browser to use the teams online or install the Teams app on his or hers companies computer, but it would be even better when the employees won’t have to install it at all, and could just use the desktop Teams app when using the companies computers. In this case the best thing to do is to deploy the Teams desktop client. So in this post I will show how to Install Microsoft Teams with Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager.
There are more benefits of deploying the Teams desktop client app and not let employees use the online Teams.
- Set the auto start and users will stay signed in Teams, so users are always reachable.
- Users will stay connected and will be better informed with teams notifications.
- Offers the best meeting experience with full audio, video and sharing.
- Outlook add-in for planning team meetings in outlook.
- Allows mass deployment.
Computer requirements
- .NET framework 4.5 or later
- Windows 8.1 or later
- Windows Server 2012 R2 or later
- 3 GB of disk space for each user profile (recommended)
Create the Teams application
First download the Teams msi file, in this case the 64 bits version and place it on your sources share in order to create a MECM application with it.
Open your MECM console and go to: \Software Library\Overview\Application Management\Applications then right click on Applications and select Create Application.
In the Create Application Wizard click the Browse button and browse to the just downloaded Teams_windows_x64.msi and click Open.
Click Next.
On the View imported information section click Next.
On the Specify information about this application section enter the fields that you want (for example):
Name: Teams
Administrator comments: This will install the Teams desktop client 64 bits version.
Publisher: Microsoft
Software version: (Leave blank, because teams auto updates)
Optional reference: (Leave blank)
Administrative categories: Office
Installation program: msiexec /i “Teams_windows_x64.msi” ALLUSERS=1
When using ALLUSER=1 the Teams Machine-Wide installer will be shown in Programs and Features and administrators could easy uninstall the machine-Wide installer. This could be useful when a user uninstalls his or hers Teams app but want it reinstalled again. In the section User uninstall the Teams app I will explain more about uninstalling and installing the users Teams app.
Install behavior: Install for system
Click Next.
If you want Teams NOT to auto launch after a users logs in use the Installation program:
msiexec /i “Teams_windows_x64.msi” OPTIONS=”noAutoStart=true”
If you do NOT want Teams to appears in Programs and Features in Control Panel and in Apps & features in Windows Settings for all users of the computer use the Installation program:
msiexec /i “Teams_windows_x64.msi”
On the Confirm the settings for this application windows click Next.
The Create Application wizard completed successfully and click Close.
Edit the Teams application properties
Double click on your teams application you just created to open the properties.
Go to the tab Software Center and enter the fields that you want (for example):
Selected language: English (United States) default
Localized application name: Teams
User documentation: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/microsoft-teams-video-training-4f108e54-240b-4351-8084-b1089f0d21d7
Link text: How to work with teams
Privacy URL: (Blank)
Localized description: Microsoft Teams is a Universal communication and collaboration platform that combines persistent workplace chat, video meetings, file storage (including collaboration of files), and application integration.
Keywords: teams,meeting,chat, videocall
Icon Click Browse and select the image you want to use as an icon.
You can use the Teams image below for the Icon.
Go to the tab User Experience and set the Maximum allowed run time (minutes) to15 and set the Estimated installation time (minutes) to 5.
Click OK and OK again to close the Teams properties.
Deploy the Teams application
Right click the Teams application you created and click Deploy.
Click the Browse button behind Collection: and select the collection to deploy to, in this care our Device collection D-DC-AM-ACC-Teams and click Next.
Click on ADD button to distribute the Source files of the Teams application to your Distribution Point OR Distribution Point Group and click Next.
Select Action: Install and Purpose: Required and click Next. If you want computer to be waken up before installation starts select Send wake-up packets.
Check the option Schedule the application to be available at if you want users to be able to install the required application at a certain time before the deadline.
Set the Installation deadline you desire and click next.
Specify the user experience setting for this deployment that you want (for example):
User notification: Display in Software Center, and only show notifications for computer restarts. (If you don’t want users to see this application in Software Center select one of the other options.)
When the installation deadline is reached, allow the following activities to be performed outside the maintenance windows: Software Installation.
Click Next.
Click Next, Next and Close.
Check is the contact status is Succesfull.
User experience Software Center
If the deployment is required and the deadline not yet passed, users can install the application before the deadline. Because of the setting User notification: Display in Software Center, and only show notifications for computer restarts we set in earlier in this post.
This is what the user will see in Software Center at Installation Status when clicking Teams.
You can also check if the Software Center settings are set correctly.
Check the Deployment Logs
On the client where the Teams application is being deployed we can check the MECM logs to see if the deployment has been successful.
On the client go to: C:\WINDOWS\CCM\Logs. (you can do this remotely of course if you want.)
In the AppDiscovery.log we can see that the Teams application is not discovered so it will be installed at the deadline.
In the AppEnforce.log we can check the installation steps being performed.
Check User experience after installation
After the installation is completed and a user logs on to the computer, the Teams app will be installed for the user, Teams will auto start and a Teams desktop icon will be visible.
User uninstalls the Teams app
Because the teams app is installed by the user, users can also uninstall the Teams app from their profile (not for the device).
From the Windows start menu, the user can right click teams and click Uninstall. Then Programs and Features will be opened and then by right clicking Microsoft Teams and Uninstall the user will remove Teams.
The Teams app will be removed and the desktop shortcut will also be removed for the user.
Reinstall the Teams app for the user
Now in order to get the Teams app reinstalled again the following steps have to be taken (This could be done by the IT support department):
- Uninstall the Teams app installed for every user profile. (you can only do this with admin rights)
- Delete the directory recursively under
%localappdata%\Microsoft\Teams\.
(Of the user missing the Teams app) - Delete
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Teams\PreventInstallationFromMsiregistry value. (Of the user missing the Teams app) - Redeploy the MSI package to that particular computer.
(Send the MECM client action: Machine Policy Retrieval & Evaluation Cycle because we deployed a required deployment.)
After the steps the user must log off and log on in order for Teams to be installed again.