Improve Install options - Install for all users and install location
Raising this again as Microsoft closed the previous request, saying it was complete even though it was not. (link below)
Teams should install to the program files directory, not the users AppData.
And NO, the answer is not to put a copy of the MSI in Pogram Files and deploy to the users AppData when they login.
Anonymous
shared this idea
The team is looking into this feature and considering solutions. We will update when there is more information to share.
218 comments
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Claudio Salvio
commented
Hopefully this gaffe was not generated simply because there is a Squirrel fan on the Teams team.
All the applications I know of that have installers generated with Squirrel limit the installation to the LOCALAPPDATA folder.
I sincerely lament every time I hear that a development team chooses Squirrel as their platform for generating installers. -
James
commented
For the sake of my sanity, PLEASE get this sorted.
I don't know how many hours of my life I have wasted trying to manage and troubleshoot issues with Teams across two different companies, but it must end!
As soon as I saw Windows 11 building Teams into Windows, my hopes picked up, so let's ensure you get it right this time around.
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Cristopher
commented
For anyone following this closely like me, you'll be happy to hear that the preview version of Teams that runs on Windows 11 is not installed into the user's profile. The main exe, msteams.exe runs from Program Files and there are several Teams processes tied to edgewebview executables in Program Files (x86).
I do believe there is a light at the end of this tunnel.
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Anonymous
commented
This is why Teams isn't taken seriously in a professional environment- when you have hundreds of remote users logging into a VDI environment and Teams loads/installs under every user profile, instead of one time under Program Files it bloats the server drives, and good luck trying to lock down user profiles for security... what a laughably ****-poor implementation.
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NG KA LUNG吳嘉龍
commented
I tried to implement TEAMS in the school, and found that there is no way to pre-install the TEAMS APPS on the shared computer. There are 30-40 people logging in in the computer class at the same time, and each lesson has to download more than 4GB of installation files at the same time, which is very stupid.
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David Broadley
commented
I can't believe Microsoft ever thought this design for installing was good. Yes its fine for users at home. But in enterprise environments it is not practical. Uses a lot of storage space that would not be needed if it was just a normal program install into program files. Can't believe they just wrapped up the Teams installer into an MSI. Classic Microsoft support not actually reading what the issue actually is!
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Kamil Kikor Szeliga commented
Any updates on this?? Install app in the Appdata in enterprise environment is such a bad idea!
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Josh
commented
Please make a traditional installation for the system, not specific copies for each user. It should be just like OneDrive's newer system-wide installation. To continue allowing rapid application updates for new releases, you can install a system service which handles the updates, which is commonly used in many other applications including Microsoft applications.
Here are my issues with the way the Teams Machine-Wide Installer MSI currently behaves:
1) Installing the application files to AppData\Local is really painful when it comes to using Active Directory Roaming User Profiles and the group policy setting 'Delete Cached Copies Of Roaming Profiles'. The Teams app is lost whenever the user logs off, and when they log back on they get an older copy re-installed from whatever version the Teams Machine-Wide Installer is on. Please make the Teams MSI installer put the application files into the C:\Program Files\ folder and not into AppData\Local.
2) Software Restriction Policy is commonly set up to block .exe applications in C:\Users\<username>\AppData\* from being able to execute. This is to prevent malware/cryptolocker ransomware from infecting the system and potentially organization. Please don't install Teams executable files into this folder!
3) The MSI does not always successfully upgrade a previously installed version of the MSI, sometimes saying it can't upgrade it because it's already installed. Please use a new GUID for the MSI installer ID for each new version of the MSI and not re-use the same GUID. Re-using the same GUID for each new version of the MSI also means having to use custom registry detection methods in SCCM instead of being able to use the default MSI detection method.
4) Uninstalling the MSI first does not always result in all components of the Teams Machine-Wide Installer from being removed.
4A) I've found that the Uninstall registry key can be left behind, causing SCCM to think the program is still installed, showing a deployment error and also not being able to reinstall it.
4B) I've found that the Win32_Product WMI class may sometimes still contain Teams, resulting in the SCCM SMS_InstalledApplications WMI class also still showing Teams being installed. The only way I've found to fix this is to use the Uninstall() method of the Win32_Product class, and it makes modifications on all the installed applications on the system, which is not good.5) Reporting on installed Teams application versions from SCCM is difficult because the Teams per-user installations aren't registered as applications in the deployment status. Also on shared PCs we have a ton of old installations showing up from users who haven't logged on and used the software recently.
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Antonio Figueiredo
commented
Please provide an update we are approaching 1 year since your last comment.
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Santiago
commented
Buenas. A ver si es posible que se permita realizar este tipo de instalación, pudiendo elegir la ruta de instalación y las aplicaciones a instalar.
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Anonymous
commented
For the love of all things holy, fix this Microsoft. Virtualized environments cannot afford the space of installing the application to each user's application data.
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Sreve P
commented
I am looking to deploy Teams to Fire Stations, for which many people share desktop PCs. We already have (roaming) profile related issues with these PCs, so it would be good to have the ability to install the app to the device rather than individual profiles.
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Antonio Figueiredo
commented
Also its been 5 years since the original post!
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Antonio Figueiredo
commented
How long is something allowed to be under review, especially something that was basically ignored and marked as completed with no user feedback in another UserVoice?
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Steve
commented
This is actually ridiculous, we have Nessus reporting over 500 vulnerabilities for Teams due to the way it is installed. We would manually have to go and log in as every user whose profile is running an older version to get it updated.
Why on earth can they not just bundle the update with O365 updates? I suppose because Microsoft also have no way of updating every user profile, which means their install location is flawed.
Although Zoom is installed the same way, but their installer and least has an /allusers switch which updates all the profiles, but still a pain -
Nate Norman
commented
This needs to be fixed as soon as possible, it causing issues with regulators and if not fixed soon we might be required to stop using the software.
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Brent Fanguy
commented
We run 3 2019 Remote Desktop Servers with 30-50 users on each. So we have 30-50 installations of teams on each server. Some of User directories are 1gb (Microsoft saves the previous versions for each user). Not to mention the Security Risk on installing in a users appdata folder!!
2-1/2 years and still waiting!
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Systems Administrator
commented
Please fix this ASAP. Teams will not update. a normal Program Files installation is needed.
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Jay
commented
One of the most important change to be done on this app!
Due to the effort to put into the installation of this app, the pleasure and acceptance will passes quickly! -
Rob Holmes
commented
We're starting to see a lot of issues with Teams not updating, or users moving around and it being out of date, not opening etc. Please make this part of Office 365 and update via Windows Update. A proven system for updating apps which we have systems in place for doing.