Recently I wrote about the exciting new Teams client that was finally released. Teams has always been a divisive product, but a complete re-write with a modular design using WebView2 and React is exciting. Sure, it uses even more as I discussed in that article, but that is not today’s focus. Microsoft has officially GA’d the new Microsoft Teams app for virtual desktop infrastructure. Today, we will take you through the new Teams client requirements, building a custom image for the new Teams client, deploying antivirus exclusions via Intune, why does this matter, and the features that are still in progress.

The New Teams Client Requirements

The new Teams client has a few requirements from a functionality perspective:

• Windows 10.0.19041+
• Classic Teams app 1.6.04472+ for the “new Teams toggle”
• Enabling notification banners
• WebView2
• App sideloading enabled
• Delivery optimization
• Latest version of the Visual C++ runtime
• WebRTC Redirector (WebSocket) plugin
• WVD registry key (HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Teams\IsWVDEnvironment: DWORD:1)

The updates themselves aren’t too big of a deal. For Cloud PCs, you can use the gallery image to build your custom image. Specifically, Windows 11 Enterprise + Microsoft 365 Apps 23H2 will get the job done. The brilliant thing is that it will have basically all of your requirements handled for you.

In the video demo in the next section, you will see for the most part all I needed to do was update Visual C++ , install the new Teams client, and run VDOT (Virtual Desktop Optimization Tool) as referenced in my blog. It was a really quick and easy process overall. Let’s discuss building that custom image.

Building the Windows 365 Custom Image for the New Teams Client

As discussed, building the custom image is really easy. You will build a VM with these really cool Cloud PC image templates and do the stuff I mentioned a minute ago. All in all, it’s basically 20 minutes tops and you’re ready to update your provisioning policy so people can re-provision onto the new experience.

It’s important to note that they will be updating their base images soon with the new Teams client, but you may want to get ahead of things and start testing at the very least.

Optimizing and Using your Cloud PC for the New Teams Client

We have a few things we need to do to ensure the new Teams client functions as expected. One of the keys to using the new Teams client successfully is getting your AV exclusions in order. You will see in the video below how to configure them via Intune. To simplify things, these are the executables and paths:

Processes:
ms-teams.exe
ms-teamsupdate.exe

Paths:
C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\MSTeams_23306.3315.2560.6525_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\ms-teams.exe
C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\MSTeams_23306.3315.2560.6525_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\ms-teamsupdate.exe

Additionally, you will need one of the following clients to take advantage of AV optimizations on your Cloud PC:

• Remote Desktop Client for Windows 1.2.1755
• Remote Desktop Client for Mac 10.7.7
• Windows 365 App (the only right answer)

Why Does the New Teams Client for VDI Matter?

The classic Teams for VDI architecture can be seen below. The new Teams client will work in a very similar way. With Teams for VDI, media processing e.g., audio and video are offloaded to the local endpoint, which provides a major performance improvement.

Overall, the New Teams Client for VDI outside of the huge performance improvements that exist over the classic Teams client, runs substantially better on virtual desktop infrastructure.

Some of the caveats we do currently have are on limitations at the GA release, which we will discuss next.

Differences on the New Teams Client for VDI

As of now, we have a few things we’re waiting on currently:

• Multitenant Multi-Account (MTMA)
• Screen sharing from chat on AVD/Windows 365
• HID support in headsets
• Machine-wide classic Teams will not show the app switch toggle to new Teams

A few items are fixed now in the new Teams client though:

• Channels 2.0
• Multi-window is enabled by default without restart
• Sharing toolbar supports pinning

For those interested, you can access the VDI feature comparison for AVD and Windows 365 here

The features that were not supported in classic that are still not supported today:

• Quality-of-Service
• 1080p
• User-uploaded custom backgrounds
• Teams Premium
• Avatars
• Gallery Views (3×3 and 7×7)
• Noise Suppression
• Zoom In/Out
• Location-based Routing
• Media Bypass
• HID (for Citrix)
• Share System Audio (Citrix and VMware)
• Broadcast and live event producer/presenter roles
• Cross cloud anonymous join in Gov Cloud
• “Record video clip” still cannot capture screen share
• Call monitor doesn’t display video or screen share

Final Thoughts

It’s great to see support for Teams optimization just a few months after the client went GA. It’s the Christmas present (or whatever holiday to celebrate) that we were all waiting for. One of my best friends, the amazing Stephen Wagner wrote about the new Teams client for VDI the second it hit public preview back in October with child-like excitement. So many of us in the DaaS and VDI space are dying for parity on all collaboration clients, and this is certainly a step in the right direction. Let’s get more people on realistically sized desktops with applications that work efficiently. I know people still see Teams and run away, but give it a try! I really love the new Teams client and I think you will too.