Install Teams & OneDrive in Citrix (Machine-Based)

Update of the existing article to the latest requirements and features.

Microsoft Teams

User Based Microsoft Teams

The standard installation that the user can perform, e.g. via the Microsoft365 Apps portal, is a user-based installation. In the Citrix environment, this is only recommended for desktop operating systems (pooled or personal desktop).

A User-Based Installation can be detected very quickly in the User Profile, because data are then located under AppData\Local\Microsoft\Teams.

This type of installation in a worker with server operating system has many cons:

No control over the installed version
Several different versions possible installed on the same worker
Complete data (~1 GB) are in the user profile

FSLogix Container (Office/Profile) in Citrix Environments

Recently, I have been involved more and more in projects where Office365 is to be fully implemented in Citrix environments. This means that the customer not only needs the standard Office applications Outlook, Excel and Word, but also wants to use teams and OneDrive.

But this is exactly where we, without additional software, have big problems in non-persistent desktop environments. For example with our profiles (Team Installer stores its data in the profile) or so that the data is downloaded from the Internet every time (excluding OneDrive Sync data in the profile).

However, we have recently been in the fortunate position of being able to use FSLogix “free of charge” for this purpose, if we meet the following requirements:

Microsoft 365 E3/E5
Microsoft 365 A3/A5/ Student Use Benefits
Microsoft 365 F1/F3
Microsoft 365 Business
Windows 10 Enterprise E3/E5
Windows 10 Education A3/A5
Windows 10 VDA per user
Remote Desktop Services (RDS) Client Access License (CAL)
Remote Desktop Services (RDS) Subscriber Access License (SAL)

Activation of Office365 through multiple Citrix Worker (Activation Token Roaming)

The activation of Office365 in Terminal Server environment is enabled with shared computer activation, but will not work without further configuration. What is not described in the Microsoft article, from my older blog entry, Office puts in the user directory “AppDataLocalMicrosoftOffice16.0Licensing” (the 16.0 stands for Office 2016, at 2013 there must be 15.0) a license token for the host (Server/Client). This token is valid only for the host on which the user has just activated the office. If the user logs on another host, a new token is placed in the directory.

For roaming profiles, the existing configuration must be extended by the folder listed above, or the folder that you defined with the GPO, so that it’s synchronized across all hosts.

Unlike the normal license token for FatClients, this is only valid for a few days. Microsoft has published this TechNet article: TechNet Shared Computer Activation

Office365 installation on Terminal Server (Shared Computer Activation)

Microsoft has announced the opportunity to deploy Office 365 on a terminal server. This requires the correct Office365 plan and a feature called shared computer activation. For more information about the feature, read the attached blog article http://blogs.technet.com/b/uspartner_ts2team/archive/2014/09/03/office-365-shared-computer-activation.aspx

Supported Office365 Plans:

Office 365 ProPlus
Office 365 Enterprise E3
Office 365 Enterprise E4
Project for Office 365
Visio Pro for Office 365
Project Online with Project for Office 365