How to have multiple Microsoft Teams Windows - Brainlitter

Microsoft Teams was already a big deal, prior to that whole worldwide virus thang. Now Teams is exploding in use for meetings, chats, collaborating on files over distance (i.e. from ‘sudden home offices’) and the drumbeat over the lack of multiple Microsoft Teams Windows (or instances, if you want to get technical) is getting louder.

This video walks you through using your Chromium Browser to get multiple Microsoft Teams Windows (or instances, if you please).

Update! Kyle always makes better videos than I do!

Damnit Kyle! And as always, great job. 🙂

Kyle always raises our video game

What’s the problem?

Microsoft Teams – One Window at a time? Seriously?

By now you’ve probably noticed that you can only be in one area of the Windows based Teams App at a time. Multiple Windows just isn’t a thing and for scenarios like answering a quick question in a chat while you are composing some masterpiece in a channel or while you are in a meeting … just sucks. Hard.

Help is on the way. But not really…

To date, all Microsoft has announced is the ability for chat to pop out within Teams, sometime in Mid-April. This will be a welcome improvement, but it just isn’t enough – check out road map item 57292 for more on that.

Um, please explain…

I have many channels that I frequent, and I want to open them at the same time as my calendar, chat and other apps.

For example, I want a separate window for my most visited channels and projects. As well, I’m in calls and meetings all day right now during this whole Corona ordeal. Having the ability to shift context allows me to get more work done.

And while this won’t apply to everyone, as an Office 365, Teams and SharePoint consultant, I’m jumping in and out of different Teams tenancies all the time.

There is a solution here. Installing Microsoft Teams Browser windows as “Chromium Apps”.

Okay, I think I’ve got it. Now give me the goods…

To get rolling, you will need Windows 10 and a Chromium Browser, such as Microsoft Edge Chromium or Google Chrome and these should be on version 80 or higher.

For Multiple Microsoft Teams Windows, you will need either Microsoft Edge Chromium or Google Chrome (barf, the new bloated and untrustworthy Firefox, IMHO), at vesion 80 or higher.

The steps for creating a bunch of Microsoft Teams Windows is easy. First, go to teams.microsoft.com in your Chromium Browser and choose the Teams function you want to capture – such as chat, the calendar or dig right into a channel. When you have your Teams right where you want it, install the site as an app. You can do this MANY times..

The steps to do this are really quite simple. Better yet, you can do this with lots of other websites too like Outlook on the Web, Twitter, LinkedIn, Navo, etc.

In the video above, I show you precisely how in a quick demo along with a few quick tips and tricks as well, so be sure to check that out. Too lazy to scroll to the top? No worries, here’s a link to the video here: How to have multiple Microsoft Teams Windows

And one more thing…

In the video, I point out that the one (minor) challenge is that having a bunch of Teams apps open/in the tray is cool and all but I’d like to customize what I see so I can click on what I need even faster.

While you can download all sorts of icons, if you are looking for access to some quickly, look no further than some of the icon libraries built into Windows. Here’s a couple:

%systemroot%\system32\imageres.dll
%systemroot%\system32\shell32.dl