SOLVED

Teams video call minimizes to bottom right, very inconvenient

Brass Contributor

When I minimize a Teams Video Call it minimizes to the bottom right of the screen, which is very frustrating. This is inconvenient as I'm then not looking at my team, but looking down, so everytime I have to move it up to the top leftish so my team has me looking at them. 
The teams windows need to minimize at least to middle of screen, and preferably should allow you to select where to place it when minimized. 

 

If this is possible please let me know how.

17 Replies
This is just the way it is. I know of no way to influence this setting. As you say though, you can move the minimised window around your screen as you please which is pretty easy to do.

@PeterRising 

yes, easy to do, but very very frustrating as a user, especially if you have to switch in and out of min and normal.

best response confirmed by JedICDTech (Brass Contributor)
Solution
I guess the thing to realize with a video call minimized window like this is that it is important where it is placed. Locating it at bottom right means you look down and away from who you are talking to, and requires extra work to correct. In addition, many laptops have low mounted camera (under screeen, nostril-cam) so a simple option to select screen position, or better, remembering where it was last place on the screen would be very user friendly. Just because something is simple to do does not mean it is "OK".
I fully agree. I use Teams all day long and wish it would remember where I place the minimized window on my screen!

@JedICDTech 

 

Totally agree - I actually prefer to have teams minimized much of the time so the faces aren't so full screen and overwhelming, I find it much better to minimize and then bring the thumbnail preview up to where my camera is, would love that to be a preset choice or alternatively remember last position.

@DWB_in_oz Is there really no way to modify this in the registry or something? This is so infuriating I google a solution every month to see if anyone has found a way around it. You guys are exactly right, esp. with larger desktop screens. People don't put their cameras on the bottom left of their screen. Top center.. Why would it minimize to the lower right?! Its insane.. Do people actually use the apps they create?

you sound like me. I really wonder if they use their own tools myself, and what a seemingly simple fix to make (well, since Windows has been remembering where you put windows for a looooong time.)

@JedICDTech haha I feel your pain, I really do.

 

Have you ever checked out PowerToys? It's something I could see being added to that application if the Teams app can't get their stuff together.

 

It very useful for a bunch of random things. I esp. love fancy zones.

 

Maybe they could add a Remember Window's Position feature to that? We can dream...

@JedICDTech Okay I spoke too soon. Get ready, I just solved my problem, hopefully it will work for you too. So Fancy Zones, if you have a zone that has an upper left corner where you'd want the Teams minimized call window to appear, you can do it.

There is one option in the the PowerToys Fancy Zones window that seemed to do it for me. It's called "Allow popup window snapping." When I turned this on, started a meeting, minimized it, and snapped the window to one of my zones, it automatically went back there. Even works for getting a call too!

Not perfect but it works well enough for me right now!
@JedICDTech Okay spoke too soon again. The option I suggested is problematic for a few reasons. It moved all child objects to that location, so even like tooltips on hover, splash screens of apps opening.. Not great. BUT.

If you use the option below it "Allow child windows snapping" that actually does the same thing. So I think we're good!
@JedICDTech Last reply I swear.

Okay so I had Fancy Zones set up to just create different buckets I would snap windows to. But they somewhat recently I think, added a new type of layout where you can actually overlap the zones. So I just created a new zone that is the exact size of the teams minimized meeting view and put it in the top center of my screen. You don't even need to check the "Allow child windows snapping" any longer because technically the mini teams meeting window is its own window. This is the cleanest solution I've found and requires no extra utilities beyond PowerToys which has lots of great stuff you could probably find useful.

@bkrealityi 

 

Thanks - I had previously tried Fancy Zones/ Powertoys but been unable to make it work as I wanted as I hadn't seen the custom overlapping zones. I've put a small zone up in the middle and can move the preview thumbnail to it, however it doesn't seem to return there by itself, it still goes back to bottom right. Perhaps I have a different version of Powertoys as I cannot see an option to "allow child snapping".

@DWB_in_oz That is great you can do that, but Microsoft should make Microsoft tools work like other Microsoft tools!! :)

I think they will ask you jump to "feedback portal"
...frustrating
as it's already a floating window, why they can't make it better

@bkrealityi  Please make sure you express your frustration SPECIFICALLY  in the feedback area of Teams. I don't think the Windows people read these forums, even if it does say it's for Windows. We are all just screaming into the wind if complaints are just here.....

1 best response

Accepted Solutions
best response confirmed by JedICDTech (Brass Contributor)
Solution
I guess the thing to realize with a video call minimized window like this is that it is important where it is placed. Locating it at bottom right means you look down and away from who you are talking to, and requires extra work to correct. In addition, many laptops have low mounted camera (under screeen, nostril-cam) so a simple option to select screen position, or better, remembering where it was last place on the screen would be very user friendly. Just because something is simple to do does not mean it is "OK".

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