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November 14, 2022

Microsoft Teams Virtual Backgrounds for Today’s Communication World

In today’s world, communication and collaboration are King! Or Queen! End users no longer rely on just email to work with teammates or customers. And they don’t want to use multiple disconnected apps to communicate and connect for work. Enter Microsoft Teams – filling a void, allowing employees to meet over video, make calls, chat, and collaborate using whiteboard and integrated MS 365 Apps. Microsoft Teams continues to expand its core functionality while expanding 3rd party integrations. Being able to have a single app on corporate devices to communicate is key to both
productivity and manageability for IT.

For many of us, office cubicles and board rooms may be a thing, or start to become, a thing of the past. We are working from a home office, perhaps even a garage, an open floor workspace, or some variation. And depending on our surroundings, we may want to lower distractions and give the illusion that our workspace is certainly more professional. This could be as simple as a blurred background or a conference room that includes your company branding. This is where Microsoft Teams Virtual Backgrounds comes into play – no longer are you stuck with that boring living room wallpaper or something worse as your backdrop.

Microsoft Teams Virtual Backgrounds in VDI/DaaS Environments

Regardless of what your VDI/DaaS environment looks like, there are a few key steps to ensure that Virtual Backgrounds are available when using Microsoft Teams. During the pandemic, Teams Optimization was key in supporting the rush of remote workers. Now, the new kid on the block is Blur or Virtual Backgrounds for Teams in VDI/DaaS.

To make this happen, first we want to make sure that you have Teams Optimization installed within your endpoint physical device. This is typically an option when first installing the VDI/DaaS Client but comes pre-installed when you use choose a 10ZiG Endpoint, installed locally or configured through the 10ZiG Manager. Currently at this time of writing, only Windows Clients support this feature. You will see that Teams is Optimized for your environment if About > Version shows something similar:

Next, you want to make sure to have the latest Microsoft Teams version installed on your virtual desktop. This would be version 1.5.00.11865 or greater to support Microsoft Teams Virtual Backgrounds. Finally, and it may be obvious, but you need to have a camera connected and available within the virtual desktop. When you start a new meeting, you will see the “Background filters