Microsoft Teams distribute company background via GPO (company branding)

by A.K.in common, hybrid environments office 365, Microsoft Office 365, microsoft teams, Microsoft Teamson 3. May 20203. May 2020

The estimated reading time 1 minutes

Some time ago you were able to define backgrounds or bluring in Microsoft Teams. If you choose a background there are some predefined from microsoft. The download URL for backgrounds:
https://statics.teams.microsoft.com/evergreen-assets/backgroundimages/

Custombackgrounds are stored inside the user

%appdata%\Microsoft\Teams\Backgrounds\Uploads

If you have a company and want to give your users the chance to use corporate backgrounds. It is possible to distribute the backgrounds, but at the moment it is not possible to force this background (may 2020).

How does it look like?
You have the microsoft default backgrounds and your own background at the end.

Now lets have a look on the gpo settings, they’re not that much.
In my testing environment I put the background into the NETLOGON share, because I have no other. But you can use any other share. (Check permissions).

Then I created a group policy with the shown settings:

Source File:

\\demo.it-koehler.com\NETLOGON\backgroundteams.jpg

Destination File: %AppDataDir%\Microsoft\Teams\Backgrounds\Uploads\backgroundteams.jpg

Why %appdata% does not work? In GPOs there are different variables. You can see them when the path field is selected and you hit “F3”

After the next logon the users have your company background and can select it. But as I said, it is not forced and they are able to choose any other.

If you like this article please let me know by clicking on “helpful”. If you have questions just write me a short comment. Have fun with teams and stay tuned.

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Teams

1 year ago

Thanks for the painful information.

Jan VdA

2 years ago

Thanks for your guidance. In our case, the above only worked with “Run in logged-on user’s security context” ticked in the “Common” tab

Eric Bostrom

3 years ago

Here’s my teams.bat. Will copy any new/modified backgrounds to correct folder each boot, and update teams if available. If teams isn’t installed it will install silently.

IF EXIST "C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Teams\Update.exe" (
xcopy \\fs01\netapps\teams\vbackgrounds\* /D %appdata%\Microsoft\Teams\Backgrounds\Uploads\
C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Teams\Update.exe -s --processStart "Teams.exe"
GOTO end
) ELSE (
xcopy \\fs01\netapps\teams\vbackgrounds\* /D %appdata%\Microsoft\Teams\Backgrounds\Uploads\
\\fs01\netapps\teams\Teams_windows_x64.exe --silent
C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Teams\Update.exe -s --processStart "Teams.exe"
)
:end

A.K.

Author

Reply to Eric Bostrom

3 years ago

Didn’t give a try but looks pretty cool. If I have some time, I’ll transcript to powershell.
Nice comment, thanks a lot.

All the best.

Alexander

Marek

3 years ago

Hi Arild, You can use create but this is a one time actione then. If you use update anytime you change the file on netlogon it will be copied to the clients.

Hi Alexander, I have two questions.
Did you try to distribute more files? Our PR wants 6 files to be available. Did you try to copy whole folder?
Is there a way to promote your files before the standard ones so users don’t have to scroll to corpo files? Or maybe delete the standard ones?

BR
Marek

A.K.

Author

Reply to Marek

3 years ago

Hi Marek,
I’ll give a try and let you know. Maybe you have to use some sort of script for that. But this needs some time.

Greetings

Alexander

A.K.

Author

Reply to Marek

3 years ago

Hi Marek,

I did some research for backgrounds in teams. Unfortunately it is not that easy to delete the backgrounds and only use your custom ones. It’s quite simple, because the backgrounds are downloading just the moment you click on them in teams. The consequence; folder is empty on startup (it makes no difference if it is emty or not) because teams is downloading if not available. Maybe you can try to block the download URL

https://statics.teams.microsoft.com/evergreen-assets/backgroundimages/

but it don’t know if there are any other issues, doing that.
Copy multiple files can be done with wildcard naming (*.png). See this link:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/a9440802-22a4-4b8a-a84a-5e8bdf1db23c/copying-files-with-gpp-does-it-copy-subfolders?forum=winserverGP

Greetings

Alexander

Arild Nedreberg

3 years ago

Why do you use “replace” and not “create” in the “action” field ?

A.K.

Author

Reply to Arild Nedreberg

3 years ago

Hi Arild,

I want to be sure to have the background in teams, even if there is another file with the same name. It’s also possible to use the “create” option.
See this link also:

https://www.itpromentor.com/gp-crud/#:~:text=Replace%20%E2%80%93%20Unlike%20it%27s%20friendlier%20cousin,but%20destroy%20old%20ones%2C%20too.&text=Update%20%E2%80%93%20A%20yellow%20icon%2C%20as,if%20it%20doesn%27t%20exist.

Have fun.

Alexander

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