Push files to Teams Custom Background Upload folder - Get the New Teams version

[David_Dudi_Yacouel]

Hello,

We'd like to push our company-branded background to everyone's laptops in the company. So we know we have to put the files in the folder %AppData%\Microsoft\Teams\Backgrounds\Uploads, and created an Intune app to copy the files to this folder on everyone's laptops. But for some users it is failing because they don't have that folder, and apparently their Teams app does not have the feature yet, it only has the older feature of Blur the background.

So we checked the Teams desktop app version, they are all v1.3.xxx, so it's not that. I guess the actual Teams executable is just a framework, like a browser or something, and the content/logic is controlled by something else?

How do we make sure everyone in the company are at the latest Teams version? Specifically, the April 2020 version that we understand included this new feature of selecting the background. 

We noticed that those users/laptops that don't have the new Teams features also have an older Office 365 version, which kinda' makes sense because Teams is part of Office. These users' laptops are on the Semi-Annual channel and have O365 version 1908 (we checked in Outlook), whereas the ones with the new Teams features are on the Monthly channel with version 2004.
Is that it for Teams features?

Thank you,

David. 

[#2]

@David_Dudi_Yacouel Hello David, just a heads up that Teams has it's own separate update process and is not associated with the update channels for M365 Apps for enterprise (O365 ProPlus). You can read all about it here https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/teams-client-update

As for having the same version for all users that's quite difficult to achieve, at least from my experience, as you cannot control the updates the same way as with configuration manager for example.

About the missing 'upload' folder, do they have the 'background" folder? I believe it's created the first time you actually use the "background feature" in Teams. Anyway, the most recent update from the Teams download page is version 1.3.00.12058 (just downloaded it). You could push that one out if it's applicable.

Good luck!

[#3]

@ChristianBergstrom thank you for your reply.

We have two scenarios of the missing Change Background feature. 

First, some of our laptops are missing it. They Do have the Blur Background feature (so I guess it's not an issue of missing CPU AVX2 feasure set, I saw other publications from you on that). Also they are on version 1.3.00.12058 which is the latest.

Second, all VDIs we sampled are missing it. They all Do have the Blur Background feature. We use Azure VMs accessed via Citrix as our VDIs. Also using the same latest Teams version 1.3.00.12058.

So now I understand we probably have the latest version, and also read that in the link you provided. Therefore looking for what condition is preventing some Teams clients from offering the feature. It's not the CPU AVX2 feature set, all our laptops are top of the line i5/i7 and 1-2 years old. 

Thoughts?

Thank you very much,

Regards, David.

[#4]

Hello, on mobile so will be short. As far as I know it is not supported in VDI. As for the laptops have you done any troubleshooting? Such manual update, deletion of Teams cache, sign out/sign in, reinstallation? It’s obviously enabled for your tenant so I would focus on the laptops that are missing the custom background feature. Let me know how it goes!

[#5 · Accepted solution]

@ChristianBergstrom thank you for the advice.

Here is my update with findings:

- our laptops and VDIs all received Teams version 1.3.00.12058 on various dates early May (ranging from 5/4 to 5/8 on the small group I sampled).

- Those that have that version do have the feature of Select Custom Background.

- Our problem was that we wanted to push (from Azure Intune to all company laptops) some company-branded background images to the designated folder for Teams: %AppData%\Microsoft\Teams\Backgrounds\Uploads. But that folder did not exist for everyone, only for some. We then concluded (wrongly) that some users did not have the feature.

- Turns out, the feature exists for everyone, but it only creates the Backgrounds folder and the Uploads folder in it upon first use of the Show Background Effects feature from the 3dot (...) menu in the meeting. When clicking any of the backgrounds offered by Teams (just click, not even need to actually use it) that background image PNG file is then placed in the Backgrounds folder. 

- Therefore we are changing our script to also create the folder structure first, in case it does not exist yet (if the user did not try this feature yet), and only then copy the files in there. This way it will not fail on not finding the folder. Furthermore, when the user ever wants to use it, it will be there ready and waiting for them.

- For all this to work, naturally Teams has to be on it's latest version (or at least the one that supports it). Click the user icon on the Teams window top right (with your initials or picture), and choose Check For Updates to get the latest Teams version. It might take a bit, minutes or an hour to go, I am not sure. If you don't initiate it yourself, Microsoft documents that the Teams desktop app does that automatically every few hours, and even the admin doesn't have control of that.

So now we understand it was not about O365 versions and upgrade paths. 

@ChristianBergstrom - your blessing/validation of the findings will help the crowds here, I'm sure.

Regards, David.

[#6]

@David_Dudi_Yacouel Thanks for the update, I did mention the creation of the folder in a previous reply to you ;) But great that you now have verified it as well. Good luck with the process!

[#7]

@ChristianBergstrom yes you definitely mentioned that, so we went and verified and used it. My last post serves as a summary so far, for future use. Thanks for staying close on this!

[#8]

@David_Dudi_Yacouel Hi, Can you please help me with the script you used for your setup, I am trying to work on this and have no idea on where to start

[#9]

@Naruto Hi,

The laptops in scope are not part of a company domain, but they are managed with Azure Intune.

So we are using Intune to push this script to all these laptops, and execute it. Here is the Intune setup.

Here is the script. We put all the background images on a cloud server that is accessible to all laptops. The script copies the files from the server to the local Upload folder for Teams, on the laptop.

The script also creates the path to the Upload folder because, as described in previous post, that folder is only created upon first use of the feature, so it might not exist yet.

# created directory if it doesnt exists
if (!(get-item "$env:appdata\microsoft"                           -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)) {new-item -ItemType Directory -Path "$env:appdata\microsoft"}
if (!(get-item "$env:appdata\microsoft\teams"                     -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)) {new-item -ItemType Directory -Path "$env:appdata\microsoft\teams"}
if (!(get-item "$env:appdata\microsoft\teams\backgrounds"         -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)) {new-item -ItemType Directory -Path "$env:appdata\microsoft\teams\backgrounds"}
if (!(get-item "$env:appdata\microsoft\teams\backgrounds\uploads" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)) {new-item -ItemType Directory -Path "$env:appdata\microsoft\teams\backgrounds\uploads"}

# make array for html files and local locations
$Images = @(('https://someservername.blob.core.windows.net/companyimages/backgrounds/filename06.png?sv=2019-10-10&ss=bf&srt=o&sp=r&se=2030-01-02T02:01:41Z&st=2020-05-20T17:01:41Z&spr=https&sig=rKw81pcgRyC8yrnJwpbLDuYKmfo27KKBRvq3%2Bu1EpRo%3D',`
"$env:appdata\microsoft\teams\backgrounds\uploads\filename06.png")`
,('https://someservername.blob.core.windows.net/companyimages/backgrounds/filename08.png?sv=2019-10-10&ss=bf&srt=o&sp=r&se=2030-01-02T02:01:41Z&st=2020-05-20T17:01:41Z&spr=https&sig=rKw81pcgRyC8yrnJwpbLDuYKmfo27KKBRvq3%2Bu1EpRo%3D',`
"$env:appdata\microsoft\teams\backgrounds\uploads\filename08.png"),`
('https://someservername.blob.core.windows.net/companyimages/backgrounds/filename09.png?sv=2019-10-10&ss=bf&srt=o&sp=r&se=2030-01-02T02:01:41Z&st=2020-05-20T17:01:41Z&spr=https&sig=rKw81pcgRyC8yrnJwpbLDuYKmfo27KKBRvq3%2Bu1EpRo%3D',`
"$env:appdata\microsoft\teams\backgrounds\uploads\filename09.png"),`
('https://someservername.blob.core.windows.net/companyimages/backgrounds/filename10.png?sv=2019-10-10&ss=bf&srt=o&sp=r&se=2030-01-02T02:01:41Z&st=2020-05-20T17:01:41Z&spr=https&sig=rKw81pcgRyC8yrnJwpbLDuYKmfo27KKBRvq3%2Bu1EpRo%3D',`
"$env:appdata\microsoft\teams\backgrounds\uploads\filename10.png")`
)

# copy the files to their destination
foreach ($item in $images) {
if (!(get-item $item[1] -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)) {(New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadFile($item[0], $item[1])}
} 

You can do that in other ways, too.

I hope that helps.

David.

[#10]

@David_Dudi_Yacouel  Thanks for your time and reply David, am trying to push it via GPO for our users in my company, can we also do the above via GPO ? hope it will work too any idea on this.

[#11]

@Naruto Hi, yes, I expect it to work.

The delivery method of the script is different, whether Intune in my case or a GPO in your case, but both can trigger executing the script on the device. Make sure there are adequate rights to running the script, though it doesn't have sensitive action in it anyway.

As for the content of the script, I assume you will not need to change much (except for file names and links, of course).

However, if your devices are inside a company network then you can place the image files on a server inside the network, too, and not require to use a server on the internet and copy from there like we did.

Good luck. 

[#12]

Does anyone know if this will work with the new Teams?