Microsoft Teams update will level the playing field for all users

Microsoft will soon roll out updates for Teams that will benefit users running the collaboration software in a virtual machine (VM).

As per three new entries to the company’s product roadmap, Microsoft Teams will soon allow users of Azure, Citrix and VMware virtual desktop services to utilize give and take controls during video meetings.

Give controls allow Teams users to recruit fellow attendees to help them present, make changes to a file and perform other actions. With take controls, meanwhile, people can request they be given these kinds of administrative privileges.

Virtualization and Microsoft Teams

As many organizations migrate to a hybrid working model, whereby workers split their time between the home and office, video meetings and virtual presentations will continue to play a major role in professional life.

It’s also common for companies to use virtual desktop infrastructure to enable secure remote work. But so far, people running Microsoft Teams in a virtual machine have not had access to the full breadth of functionality, including give and take controls.

The effect of this upcoming round of updates will be to create greater consistency across Microsoft Teams environments, and open up access to core presentation functionality to those required to use virtual desktop services by their IT teams.

Support for Azure Window Desktop and Citrix services is due to arrive in March, with support for VMware’s hypervisor set to follow one month later.

TechRadar Pro has asked Microsoft whether users of other popular virtualization services (Amazon WorkSpaces, Nutanix XI Frame etc.) can expect to benefit from similar updates in future.

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