When we started of with office 365 project ,one of the key application to be delivered to users is Teams application. Teams is the primary client for intelligent communications in Office 365, replacing Skype for Business Online over time. When we started deploying the teams clients to windows computers using SCCM Configmgr ,teams will auto startup upon computer restart/user logoff & log in and is by design .
When the Teams application is installed on windows PC (it doesn't require admin rights to install and installation location is C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Teams ) ,it has auto-start application setting enabled by default. With this setting ,it create an entry in the registry in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
with value com.squirrel.Teams.Teams and data C:\Users\eswar.koneti\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Teams\Update.exe --processStart "Teams.exe" --process-start-args "--system-initiated" as shown below.
With the initial deployment ,we decided to remove this auto startup using group policy for all users and let user start the application manually as they already using lync and teams is additional collaboration platform to use.
There are 2 reasons for us to remove the teams auto-start application using GPO.
1) we don't want every one to start using the application from the time we deploy silently to the end user PC’s
2)For those it got installed ,users complain that ,loading of teams when user login takes a while which slow down the PC.
How to delete the Auto-start application of teams using GPO:
So ,to delete the auto-startup ,we use GPO (best way to remove this) by simply creating a registry key with delete and apply at OU level.
Following is the registry key used in GPO:
Location: User configuration\Preferences\windows settings\registry
Hive: HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key path: Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Value Name: com.squirrel.Teams.Teams
So far looks good but when we are actually reaching completion of office 365 project that delivers every one to use Teams application ,we started sunset lync application.
When we disabled lync for users users started asking for auto-start application for teams and we already deleted it using GPO for everyone initially.
How to Enable the Auto-start application of teams using GPO (back to beginning) :
The registry key that was created by the application in the registry key was removed earlier and now if we want that to be back ,either user must go the application and enable the setting or we push the registry key using GPO.
Since i already noted the registry key that was created by the application so i created a GPO with following syntax and applied at OU level.
As you can see above, the value data (C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Teams\Update.exe --processStart "Teams.exe" --process-start-args "--system-initiated" ) that we used is same as the one that we deleted initially, but this doesn't work on end-user PC during logon.
The GPO applied correctly and teams never load automatically so i copied the syntax and tried opening in cmd window and it works but auto-start do not work.
so after spending sometime reviewing ,finally fixed it by changing the command line from system-initiated to user-initiated
Value Data: C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Teams\Update.exe --processStart "Teams.exe" --process-start-args "--user-initiated"
If the user have teams installed (if you did not change the default install location) ,this GPO will launch teams automatically during login .
What happens if the computer doesn't have teams installed but still the GPO applied ? does it pop-up any error ? No ,there wont be any error or pop-up on the computers that doesn't have teams installed and you are safe to apply to everyone who want to have the auto-start application enabled.
Hope it helps!
22 Comments
Hi, was this ever solved for new versions of Teams?
Thanks
Hi Erick,
yes, it has been solved and blog post on how to disable the auto start of new microsoft teams https://eskonr.com/2024/08/disabling-auto-start-for-the-new-microsoft-teams/
thanks,
Eswar
Hi, was this ever solved for new versions of Teams?
Thanks
This no longer works on NEW Teams. Anyone find a solution instead of changing the JSON file for each user?
Hi Eric,
There is no easy way for new teams because, the new teams installs in "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\MSTeams_23335.232.2637.4844_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\ms-teams.exe" with version name in the folder which is dynamic all the time when there is new version to update.
But, the default is ON in the new teams unless user disable it.
Have you tried it?
Thanks,
Eswar
is there any way we can push registry change via script ?
Hi,
you can use powershell script something like this to remove the teams key from the currently logged on user:
$keyPath = "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run"
$keyName = "com.squirrel.Teams.Teams"
# Check if the key exists before attempting to remove it
if (Test-Path "$keyPath\$keyName") {
Remove-ItemProperty -Path $keyPath -Name $keyName
Write-Output "Registry key '$keyName' removed successfully from '$keyPath'."
} else {
Write-Output "Registry key '$keyName' not found in '$keyPath'."
}
Thanks,
Eswar
Hi Eswar,
I did the GPO you mentioned and did not work for me, what else I can do?
Hive HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key path SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Value name com.squirrel.Teams.Teams
Hi Matt, I am going to try this solution in my lab and let you know the results this week.
Thanks,
Eswar
Hi Eswar, thanks for this post. I got the GPO pushing but for some reason the key reads
C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Teams\Update.exe --processStart "Teams.exe" --process-start-args "--system-initiated" rather than "--user-initiated"
I set this under the User Configuration as mentioned in your post but still it doesn't accept the "--user-initiated".
What's strange is that the GPO is being applied on the endpoint. I verified this by running "GPRESULTS"
Performed a GPUPDATE /F and multiple restarts.
Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks for your time and your post again.
Hi Dennis,
does it work when you run the script or registry using the following keys manually?
Key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Value: com.squirrel.Teams.Teams
Data: %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Teams\Update.exe --processStart "Teams.exe" --process-start-args "--system-initiated"
Thanks,
Eswar
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nice article. what we are looking to have is the Teams icon not to show on the desktop. not sure how to get around it because it points to the Updater.exe which is an open source code and it is running on login. Trying to figure out how to prevent it from running on login.
Thanks,
Kevin
Hi,
you want to change the teams icon on the desktop or remote the shortcut?
For teams icon, you can have a script that runs for each user and change the icon.
For teams icon, the shortcut location is C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Teams\Update.exe --processStart "Teams.exe" which should have the correct teams icon.
Thanks,
Eswar
Hello, we are deploying Teams to our virtual (VMware Horizon) desktop. I have the program installed on my image and published to the desktop pool (after taking a snapshot). The problem I have is when I login to my virtual desktop the 1st time after the teams install, the teams application just hangs, a white box appears on the screen and never goes away. If I logout of the desktop and grab a new one, teams loads just fine. I do not want the user to login to a desktop, have teams fail to load and have them logout and back in. That won't go over well. Any suggestions?
Hi,
Looks like the teams installation did not finish successfully to the logged on user.
The teams installation happens into %localappdata%\microsoft\teams. check if the teams installed successfully and can launch it from the installation location.
Thanks,
Eswar
Hi Eswar,
Nice article. Very helpful. Would the new GPO be setup under user or computer configuration? Both have options for registry.
Hi Henry,
It is under user configuration and is said in the blog post.
Regards
Eswar
Hi Eswar,
Your article is very helpful. Thank you for sharing. I am trying to deploy Teams. I am using group policy method and I referred the below Microsoft article
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/msi-deployment#disable-auto-launch-for-the-msi-installer
I am trying to disable the autostart as mentioned in the article using below switch
msiexec /i Teams_windows_x64.msi OPTIONS=”noAutoStart=true”
Do I need to use ORCA tool to add these options, if yes where in ORCA I need to add these options,
Thank you for your help
Baffin
Hi,
No need of arca tool. Simply deploy the MSI with the switch and it works or you can use gpo to disable the auto start like I mentioned in the article.
Thanks
Eswar
Hi,
You dont need to use ORCA ,ust simply deploy the MSI with the option no auto-start then it is taken care. If you want to delete the auto start of teams, you can also create GPO with delete option in the registry and deploy to users that will take care of it. This is what we did initially during start of the project and later made it auto start using the GPO hence the blog post.
Thanks,
Eswar