Teams Integration

Expedient Enterprise Workspace - Microsoft Teams Integration

Overview

Expedient Enterprise Workspace utilizes VMware Horizon virtual desktop technology.  In order to provide a high quality audio/video meeting experience for users running Microsoft Teams, VMware and Microsoft collaborated to provide Media Optimization for Microsoft Teams with Horizon.  This document outlines the process for how to properly configure Teams integration with the Expedient Enterprise Workspace platform.

Download the software

To get started with Teams integration you will first need to download a few pieces of required software.  Many of these files are available on the Expedient download site.  Please contact the Expedient Operations Support Center for details. 

• VMware Horizon Extras Bundle
  • This is a zip file provided by VMware that contains admx files to configure the required GPO within your Active Directory domain.
• Teams app installer (Teams for work or school)
  • This can be downloaded from the Microsoft website.  Be sure to download the "Teams for work or school" installer and not the "Teams for home" installer.
  • If your company uses Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise please review the important installation notes in the Install Teams section of this document
• Horizon Agent installer
• Horizon Desktop Client installer

Configure Group Policy

Install Horizon ADMX files

The Horizon Teams integration requires that the "Media Optimization for Microsoft Teams" option be enabled via Group Policy.  This GPO option is available when the VMware Horizon admx files are installed for your Active Directory domain.  The Horizon admx files are provided as part of the VMware Horizon Extras Bundle zip file.  To install the admx files, extract the Horizon Extras zip file and copy the admx files in the root of the folder to your domains PolicyDefinitions folder along side your existing admx files.  An example of this folder would be \\contoso.com\SYSVOL\contoso.com\policies\PolicyDefinitions.  Next, copy the adml files from the sub folders of the zip file into their appropriate language folder within your PolicyDefinitions folder.  An example of this would be copying the adml files  from the en-us folder of the zip file to \\contoso.com\SYSVOL\contoso.com\policies\PolicyDefinitions\en-us 

Configure Group Policy

Once the Horizon ADMX files are installed into your domain you will need to configure a group policy object (GPO) to apply to the OU you have created in your Active Directory domain to hold your virtual desktop computer objects.  It is advised to configure this GPO to apply at the desktop OU level in your domain as opposed to domain-wide.  If you already have a GPO created to configure settings for your virtual desktops you may choose to create new GPO or include the Media Optimization setting within your existing GPO.

Edit your GPO and under Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > VMware View Agent Configuration > VMware HTML5 features > VMware WebRTC Redirection Features, set the Enable Media Optimization for Microsoft Teams option to Enabled

Install the Horizon Agent

If you are building a new desktop image, install the Horizon Agent on your image before proceeding with the next steps.  

The order of installation is important.  The Horizon Agent must be installed before Microsoft Teams is installed.  

Install Teams

The Teams installer can be run in one of two deployment modes;  per-user or per-machine.  In most cases it is advised to run the installer in per-machine mode.  Please note that when using per-machine mode, automatic updates are disabled.  When using per-machine mode you will need to maintain your non-persistent images and persistent desktop images/desktops to ensure updates are installed manually.  To install updates you will need to uninstall exsiting Teams installations and install the new version using the install steps in the following sections.  

The following sub-sections provide details on specific use cases.

Persistent Desktops

If you are installing Teams for a new persistent desktop image, you should also run the Teams installer in per-machine mode.  Additionally, if your company uses Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise you will first need to uninstall any pre-existing Teams installation.  If you are installing Teams for persistent desktops that have already been deployed, you can have your persistent desktop users install Teams in per-user mode.  If you are using a software management solution to manage your persistent desktops you should have your software management solution run the installer on your deployed persistent desktops as per-user mode.

To install Teams in per-machine mode, run the installer from the command line similar to the following.  The first command below will add a registry key to flag the installer that the install is on a VDI image.  

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Teams" /v IsWVDEnvironment /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

msiexec /i <path_to_msi> /l*v <install_logfile_name> ALLUSER=1 ALLUSERS=1

Non-Persistent (Floating) Desktops

If you are installing Teams for a non-persistent (floating) desktop image, Teams must be installed in per-machine mode. 

Teams also requires a roaming/redirected folder to ensure that Teams has access to the required per-user files it needs in order to run on non-persistent desktops. 

To install Teams in per-machine mode, run the installer from the command line similar to the following.  The first command below will add a registry key to flag the installer that the install is on a VDI image.  

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Teams" /v IsWVDEnvironment /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

msiexec /i <path_to_msi> /l*v <install_logfile_name> ALLUSER=1 ALLUSERS=1

Microsoft also recommends a profile cache manager and also notes exclusions that should be added to your caching manager.  For more information please refer to the following articles

Teams for VDI

Microsoft Teams Optimization with Horizon

Install the Horizon Desktop client

On the devices that your end users use to connect to their virtual desktops you will need to install the Horizon Client.  During the client installation, ensure that the "Media Optimization for Microsoft Teams" checkbox is checked.