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Tag: teams

  • Slimcore: Revolutionizing Teams for VDI Environments

    Slimcore: Revolutionizing Teams for VDI Environments

    Last week, Microsoft dropped a bombshell with the release of Slimcore for Teams, specifically designed for VDI environments. Let’s unpack what this means for us and how it can supercharge our virtual desktops.

    What is Slimcore?

    Slimcore is the new media engine for Teams, tailored for VDI setups like Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365. It’s packed with improvements that make Teams more efficient and user-friendly in virtual environments. No longer is the Teams client for VDI a long lost cousin of Teams, now we will see feature parity!

    Key Features and Benefits

    So what are the key features and benefits with moving to Slimcore from WebRTC?

    • Enhanced Performance: Slimcore cuts down on resource consumption, leading to faster call setup times and smoother performance. This is a game-changer for those of us juggling multiple virtual desktops.
    • High-Fidelity Media: Enjoy top-notch audio and 1080p video at up to 30fps. This ensures our meetings and presentations are crystal clear, even in a virtual setup.
    • Advanced Meeting Capabilities: Features like gallery view, custom backgrounds, and presenter mode are now available, making our virtual meetings more interactive and engaging.
    • Auto-Updates: The decoupled architecture allows for quicker feature rollouts without needing to overhaul the entire VDI infrastructure. Staying current with the latest features has never been easier.

    Installing Slimcore on Windows 365 Clients

    Prerequisites: Make sure you have the latest version of Microsoft Teams (version 24193.1805.3040.8975 or higher) and the Remote Desktop client (version 1.2.5405.0 or higher) or the new Windows app (version 1.3.252 or higher).

    Install the Plugin: The plugin (MsTeamsPluginAvd.dll) is bundled with both the Remote Desktop client and the new Windows app. It will automatically download and manage Slimcore. No admin rights or reboots are required.

    Verify Installation: After installation, the plugin will silently provision and register Slimcore for the user. You can verify this by check in the Teams client on the Cloud PC that the Slimcore client is being used by going to Settings – About Teams. Look for the text “AVD Slimcore Media Optimized”.

    User Experience Improvements

    One of the standout aspects of Slimcore is how it aligns the Teams experience between physical and virtual desktops. This consistency is crucial for user satisfaction and productivity. This gives the user a familiar experiance with the features they expect to find in Teams!

    Conclusion

    Slimcore is a significant step forward for Teams in VDI environments. It brings enhanced performance, high-fidelity media, and advanced meeting capabilities, all while simplifying updates and maintenance. If you haven’t tried it yet, now is the perfect time to explore what Slimcore can do for your virtual desktop setup.

  • Tip of the week – Push to unmute

    We have all been there. You are in a meeting, saying something smart, and everyone is just silent. Until someone says those dreadful words:

    “Hey Ola, I think you are on mute”

    I think you all know that feeling and you have to repeat yourself again, maybe losing your flow a little bit.

    Staying on mute while not talking in a Teams meeting is (or should be) the common practice for everyone to avoid unwanted background noises in meetings. But this also creates the need to remember to unmute when it’s your turn to speak. And we all know that “finding” the unmute button is sometimes hard…

    During January, a new shortcut was added which gives you the possibility to push down Ctrl + Spacebar (Windows) or Option + Spacebar (Mac) when you talk, and when you release the keys you will go back on mute again! To be honest, this might be my new favorite feature in Teams!

    This feature is on by default in Teams, but you can turn it of if you like by going to Teams Settings > Privacy and unchecking the Keyboard shortcut to unmute.

  • Tip of the week – stop mirroring your camera

    We have all done this. Showing something in the webcam in Teams and pointing in the wrong direction or mixing up left and right, since the camera is mirrored by default in Teams. It’s always been like this, but it’s still a tricky thing.

    However, this might not be a problem for most users, but it could actually be usefull when for example showing physical things. Or it might just be that you want to see what your video feed looks like for everyone else.

    This settings is set in the Device Settings panel in the meetings, click More actions (the three dots) and select Device settings. At the bottom you will find “Mirror my video” which is enabled. By disabling this, your video preview will not be mirrored anymore.

    So before changing this, my camera is mirrored in my preview box like this.

    When I disable the “Mirror my video” feature, it looks like this.

    Like you can see, my preview is not mirrored anymore!

  • Use your webcam!

    Use your webcam!

    We are about a year in to Covid-19 and remote work has been introduced to a whole lot more people. It has also proven that remote work is possible even for people who were really sceptic about the concept pre-covid.

    One thing that has really blossomed during this pandemic is remote meetings, using tools such as Microsoft Teams. Many of you were pretty used to having online-meetings even before this pandemic, but not to the extent we see today.

    Enhance your meetings

    Given that you are by now probably quite used to online meetings, it’s time to take the next step in your meeting experience and turn on that webcam.

    For some strange reason, it seems like we in IT are particular hesitant towards using the webcam during meetings. We are the ones that should lead by example, and we probably encourage others to use their webcam during meetings.

    By turning on your webcam you will increase the experience not only for you, but for everyone in the meeting. The feeling of presence will increase and getting a face on whom ever is speaking is making it a lot easier to follow along and will decrease the interruptions.

    What if your hair is not on point?

    My hair is not on point either, but if you are dressed you are good to go! It’s okay to not be comfortable with how you look today, but imaging that you are at the office, then you would meet people non the less.

    Also, we are all in the same situation at the moment.

    But the room I’m sitting in is such a mess!

    If you are using Teams (or Zoom for that matter) you can use custom backgrounds or just blur the background. It’s perfect for situations when your background is not on point. I regularly use it if I’m sitting at a café or such, to not get people walking behind me. One of my favourite background to use is however the Ollivianders store background from Harry Potter.

    My point is…

    What is the point I’m trying to get at?

    Make the effort to show up to meetings using the webcam. I do that all the time. Sometimes I’m the only one with my webcam on, but I leave it on. It also makes others turn on their camera (without asking).

    Let’s all make it a custom to turn on that webcam when we join a meeting to increase the experience for everyone!

  • Key take-aways from Ignite 2020

    Key take-aways from Ignite 2020

    Ignite 2020 was a bit different from previous Ignite to say non the less. Instead of having an in-person event in New Orleans, the experience this year was a 100% digital.

    It was as always, a bit overwhelming with a lot of interesting sessions, but you didn’t have to walk between sessions. Oh, and the coffee was really good this year!

    Looking at what was covered from the modern workplace at Ignite this year there was one common theme. Remote working and the new normal that Covid-19 creates. There was a lot of talk about how the world has changed the playing field for remote work and that we might never go back completely to how it was before. Something that I find very intriguing since this is an areas I’m passionate about.

    If you would only watch two of the sessions from Ignite 2020, I would really recommend that you watch Satya Nadella’s keynote on Building Digital Resilience and Jared Spataro’s keynote on The Future of Work. Those two were really good!

    This was a year for refinements from device management. New options for what you can do during Windows Autopilot and Co-management/tenant attach. A lot of new things which will help a lot of companies on the road to transition from traditional management to modern management! If you want to geek out, here are all the Endpoint Manager related sessions, all the Teams sessions and all the Office 365 sessions.

    Microsoft Tunnel

    On of the things that really cought my eye on an early stage was Microsoft Tunnel, which is a Microsoft VPN solution without the need for any third party licenses. I think this will be very beneficial for scenarios where you are utilizing Microsoft solutions for VPN for Windows and don’t want to invest in additional services for your mobile devices.

    Microsoft Tunnel is in public preview and is available on iOS and Android. You can read all about it here.

    Microsoft Edge

    Microsoft has been pushing the new Edge for a while now, and for a good reason too!

    It’s a really good browser, built on Chromium but with Microsoft integrations. I’ve been using this browser since it first came out, and it’s really good now.

    Microsoft is pushing it even more now and was also highlighting the Internet Explorer compatibility mode.

    BUT the big thing for Ignite was Application Management for Edge on Windows 10 which brings the Application Protection Policy features from the mobile platforms to the desktop Edge browser. This means that you can manage just the application instead of the whole device. Additionally, Microsoft Edge will support the new Microsoft Endpoint Data Loss Prevention (DLP) service which will be launched in October from day one.

    There were a bunch of other improvements to Edge presented as well, you can read all about it here.

    Microsoft Teams

    If you think there were a lot of new improvements introduced for Microsoft Endpoint Manager, it was nothing compared to Microsoft Teams.

    It’s becoming increasingly clear that Microsoft Teams should not be considered a product, it’s a platform.

    There were so many new things ranging from power platform and low-code solution for automated workflows to improved meeting experiences and wellbeing.

    A few of the highlights that caught my attention were:

    • Breakout sessions
    • Custom layouts and new together scenes
    • Wellbeing and productivity insights
    • Improved first-line workers functionallity

    You can read more in details here.