The initial release of Microsoft Teams VDI support only supported a single incoming video stream for the active speaker. This is the default view:
However, now available in public preview is seeing the video of four attendees in a 2×2 grid. This is a great improvement for user experience on VDI clients.
In the coming months, we’ll offer Calling and Meetings in Teams through Audio/Video Media optimization in collaboration with Citrix. We’re also planning additional Teams enhancements, including improved app deployment, support for Windows Virtual Desktop, performance enhancements, and optimized caching for non-persistent setups. One of the biggest differences between Citrix and Windows Virtual Desktop is cost. WVD was designed as a low-cost solution for smaller businesses. Windows Virtual Desktop. For 100 multi-session desktops with Office on WVD, Azure estimates a total monthly cost of $11,615.26 (see the official pricing page). This includes Office license costs. Our organization uses, like many production environments do, the Citrix Virtual Workspace 7.15 LTSR CU3. We host a VDI and make the VM’s available via a Netscaler. We thought, maybe we can get it to work using the browser (teams.microsoft.com) and Citrix ‘Browser Content Redirection 2.0’, using Fernando Klurfan’s guide here.
- Microsoft has finally released Microsoft Teams installer that installs all files to Program Files. But still, it is not perfect, because it supposed to be only for Virtualized Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). The big question is if it is possible to install it on regular Windows 10? This is what the Master Packager team tried to figure out.
- This has resulted in many Citrix administrators having to deploy Teams into their Virtual Apps and Desktops environments – often quite rapidly. Teams is Microsoft’s primary Office365 collaboration tool and is written in Electron, which makes it a bit of a pain to manage, like other Electron apps.
Steps to enable the 2×2 grid view VDI public preview:
1. Ensure you are using Citrix or VMware optimised VDI https://aka.ms/teamsonvdi. To check this in Teams, select your profile picture > About > Version. You’ll see a banner which shows the client version plus a message about the VDI platform the client is running on in the form “[VDI Platform] Media Optimized.” For example, “Citrix HDX Media Optimized” or “VMWare Media Optimized”
2. Ensure you have the latest VDI client and Teams MSI version installed
3. Enrol selected users in the preview program (https://aka.ms/TeamsPublicPreviewAdmin) and have them enable preview on their clients. Profile picture > About > Public Preview.
Switch to public preview
Now you will see 2×2 grid view in VDI experience
More details on the tech community here: Now in public preview: Teams on VDI 2×2 Gallery View – Microsoft Tech Community
Microsoft Teams Public Preview
The Microsoft Teams Preview program provides early access to unreleased features in Teams. Previews allow you to explore and test upcoming features. It is not the same as TAP, there is no need to sign up or be approved, and you can enable it for just select users.
Find out more at https://aka.ms/TeamsPublicPreviewAdmin
Other features currently in the preview program alongside Teams Meetings 2×2 Gallery View in Citrix and VMWare VDI
- Windows Native Notifications are now Supported on Teams: Users can now select their preferred means of notification delivery, either through Teams built-in banners or the Windows native banners.
- Meeting Reactions: Meeting reactions are a new way to interact in meetings. Participants can send reactions which are shown as a stream on content that is being shared, and on the individual who sent the reaction if they’re displayed on the meeting stage.
- Together Mode and Large Gallery for Web Meetings Large Gallery enables you to see the videos of up to 49 other people at once. This option is available when at least ten people have their cameras turned on. Together mode lets you feel like you’re in the same shared space with everyone in the meeting. Together mode is available when there are at least five people in the meeting.
- Call Merge Call Merge allows users to merge a new call they place, or a new incoming call, into their 1-1 or group call. This applies to Teams VOIP calls and PSTN calls.
You can find out what is in the current preview program release here: Release Notes Current Channel (Preview) – Office release notes | Microsoft Docs
Teams is actually a really good enterprise messaging and collaboration tool and as its in many O365 subscriptions etc then it’s a no-brainer to use it.
However teams also has an unpleasant after taste for SBC/VDI admins (its not the only app that does mind you) in the way that it is installed. By default, running the installer for Microsoft Teams doesn’t actually install the application but it extracts a package and a json file into the c:program files directory. When a user then logs into a their VDI instance the package is extracted and installed directly into the users profile (around 500mb natively).
For physical devices this doesn’t cause too much of a hassle but for VDI implementations this causes a massive headache. If you consider a typical non-persistent VDI environment which includes some kind of profile solution, Citrix UPM, VMware’s persona manager etc etc you get some highly undesirable effects.
You either have to persist the default locations for theinstallation files within your profile management solution adding at least 500mb’sto each profile (no thank) or users have to accept that on each logon to a nonpersistentfresh desktop the Teams installer will execute providing a non ideal userexperience while the CPU is busy performing the installation actions and whateverelse it has to worry about during a logon.
A great solution to this is FSLogix and Office365 or profile containers to containerise the installer reducing the user impact by persisting the data natively within an OS as far as Windows is concerned. This is one of the reasons why Microsoft purchased FSLogix then provided effectively free licences for anyone who purchases RDS,VDA, E3 and above O365 among others. This obviously covers pretty much about everybody. however the problem will still be the same that while Teams is containerised within FSLogix that is still 500mb x No. of users of storage space that could be put to better use.
Despite the great FSLogix option there’s no denying that Teamsis a badly written application for any kind of non-perisitent solution andeveryone has been commenting on the situation for some time. It appears thatMicrosoft are now starting to do something about it.
Microsoft have released a version of Teams that is a machine based install which does not install the application into a profile location but with in the correct C:program files location with the caveat that it available for VDI instances only. Sorry SBC people you’ll have to have wait a bit longer I think.
Microsoft have recently released this articlewhich includes download links to the x64 and x86 versions of teams and aspecific command line to run in order to install Teams as a VDI friendlyproduct. I wanted to have a look at this executable and see how it installed.
The command line you need to install teams is:
msiexec /i Teams_Windows_x64.MSI /l*v Teams.log ALLUSER=1
The critical difference here which either installs teams inthe standard in profile mode or VDI mode is the ALLUSER=1. DO NOT get ALLUSERconfused with ALLUSERS=1 its not a typo!
In order to find out a bit more about the teams installer Ibroke open process monitor and ran the command line without having preinstalledany typical VDI agent packages into a windows 10 instance. Sure enough theinstaller errors out with an error stating “cannot install for all users when aVDI environment is not detected”.
Microsoft Teams On Citrix Vdi App
Looking into the process monitor logs it appears that theteams installer looks for specific VDI agent based registry locations to determinewhether it will install or not.
The installer looks specifically looks for the followingregistry keys
HKLMSOFTWARECitrixPortICA
Teams And Vdi
HKLMSOFTWAREVMware, IncVMware VDMAgent
These reg keys are obviously associated with the two big VDIvendors however if you are using another vendor again you may be out of luckfor now. If a VDI agent is not installed then the installer looks for thesekeys only and then fails the install however if the VDA is installed it alsolooks for quite a few other keys so at the moment its not a case of creating asingle key to fool the installer.
However once you have a standard VDI agent installed you will then be able to run the installer command and you will see that rather than putting only the package and json file within the program files location it will now install full application into program files with the only exception to the rule being that the Squirell install log file is placed within the user profile and also a folder is created for Teams addin’s within the C:Users%username%appdatalocalMicrosoftTeamsMeetingAddin.
The change to MSI package are certainly welcome and a good initial step in providing a machine based install for Microsoft Teams which hopefully will also migrate across to the other apps that are guilty of the same behaviour(cough OneDrive). I personally would like it be a choice for the customer whether they want to go to the standard version of teams ensuring that they stay up to date with the latest versions automatically across their estate or take a steadier approach by using the machine based install versions
without the VDI technology search behaviour which would require more administrative effort for IT teams but a further degree of control that most companies find comforting.
Microsoft Teams For Vdi
A couple of things worth noting is that like its non machine based install counterpart Teams is not yet optimised for VDI voice and video capabilities, such as the HDX realtime pack so Microsoft recommend disabling the calling feature within teams.
The machine based installed is also not automatically updated so IT teams will need to manage the update procedure as they would for any other application.
Teams Citrix Vda
Author: Dale Scriven