Recently, Microsoft released the Public Preview of Microsoft Teams for Windows Virtual Desktop environments. With the new media optimizations included in this version of Microsoft Teams for Windows Virtual Desktop, a local connection will be made between users for audio and video redirection while the application itself is running in the Windows Virtual Desktop environment. This will give end users a perfect Teams experience with audio and video calls without overloading the Windows Virtual Desktop environment.
I did some test with this Public Preview version and it works perfect!
In this blog I will show you step-by-step how to install Microsoft Teams within your Windows Virtual Desktop environment. Before you start, make sure that you have installed the latest Windows Desktop client for Windows 10 (version 1.2.1026.0 or higher).
Step 1 : Install the pre-requisites
Before we can start with Microsoft Teams within Windows Virtual Desktop, we need to install some pre-requisites. First we need to install the latest supported Visual C++ runtime version. You can download it here.
After the download, start the installation.
Select I agree to the license terms and conditions and click Install
Click Close
Next we need to install the Remote Desktop WebRTC Redirector Service, you can download it here. Be aware that the current version during writing this blog is not signed, so you can get some download and install warnings. Start the installation.
Select I accept the terms in the License Agreement and click Install
Click Finish
Step 2 : Install Microsoft Teams
Next step is to install Microsoft Teams, you can download it from here. Before we start with the installation we need to set a Registry key first.
Open an elevated cmd or PowerShell prompt and run the following command:
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Teams" /v IsWVDEnvironment /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
I have downloaded the Microsoft Teams installer to the “c:\install” directory. To install Microsoft Teams run the following command (replace the “install” directory if you have downloaded the installer to another directory):
msiexec /i Teams_windows_x64.msi /l*v c:\install\teamsinstall.log ALLUSER=1 ALLUSERS=1
After the installation you can see that Microsoft Teams is installed in the “c:\Windows\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Teams\current directory” (machine based)
Step 3 : Test the results
To verify that the Microsoft Teams AV redirections are working, start Microsoft Teams, and navigate to to About > Version.
Now you see a banner displaying “You have Microsoft Teams version 1.3.00.4461 (64-bit) WVD Media Optimized”
When you to go Settings you can see that your local resources for Speaker, Microphone and Camera are selected.
Microsoft Teams for Windows Virtual Desktop is now working as you can see in the screenshot above.
Hi, this is great. Would you see any reason why the same wouldn’t be possible using on-prem VDI?
Hi ,
My WVD client is upgraded version and we are using 1909 image but after following the steps you mentioned ,when I am checking the Teams version it is showing (You have Microsoft Teams Version 1.3.00.4461 (64-bit). WVD Media Not Connected ) any suggestion to fix this ? I tried on both ARM and NON arm WVD.
Hi Ketan, installed it in several host pools without any problems. Is audio redirection blocked on your host pool?
Issue seems to solved . My remote desktop client was not upgraded that was blocking I guess.
If WVD is pooled and we need to install Remote Desktop WebRTC Redirector Service for all users , how i can do that ?
/j [/t ] [/g ]
Advertises a product – m to all users, u to current user
I discovered today that the Windows Store for business app (version 10.2.1535.0) does NOT allow for optimisation for whatever reason, where as when i install the Windows Desktop version manually (version 10.2.1524.0) it works just fine. Wasted a fair bit of time before trying the different app. Haven’t seen anything to suggest why this might be!
Correct, this client is support not all redirections at this moment. For more information see : https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/remote/remote-desktop-services/clients/remote-desktop-app-compare
i enabled audio redirection on the host pool; having some issues getting the wvd client to recognize the camera on my macbook. any idea if this is compatible with os x?
HI, is this compatible with Server 2016? I have followed the MS article and yours but it still says WVD Media Not Connected. The Audio Device on the server only shows as Remote Audio and thats what is in Teams.
Did you have also enabled redirection of the camera within the config of the Host pool?
Hi, no we didn’t. I just heard back from MS and they say it isn’t supported yet in any Server OS. We are going to redeploy with W10 multi-session (which we should have been using anyway).
Hi Robin, Unfortunately, didn’t work for me. all the settings are done including the version. But the message says “WVD media not connected”. Audio and video redirection is enabled for the hostpool. My windows version 1909.
At this moment there is a new version, can you check that version?
Wow! ***SO HELPFUL**** Robin!! Thank you!!! Very cleanly written and worked flawlessly. Bookmarking this site!
Has anyone had issues with the IOS Remote Desktop Client. Works fine on the PC with the latest RDP client, but can’t get it working with iOS.
Redirection is not supported at this moment for the iOS and Android client, only the Remote Desktop Client for Windows 10 (not the store app).
Teams client update
is there a way to get the latest version of Teams for WVD installed? mine keeps saying its been disabled from updating
It is a special version of Teams, you can download the latest version of Teams for Virtual Desktop from the Microsoft website : https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/teams-for-vdi