4 ways to disable/remove Win11 built-in Teams with Intune

Already started POCs and Pilots with Windows 11 devices in your environment?

Then you may have noticed that the Teams chat app that comes baked-in (i.e. Teams for Home) with Windows 11 only works with a personal account, and as such is pretty useless in an enterprise environment where we are blocking users from adding personal accounts (Microsoft or non-Microsoft accounts) to the device.

In this blog post, let us see the different ways via which you can disable the built-in Teams app of Windows 11 with Intune.

Disable Win11 built-in Teams chat with Intune using Settings Catalog

In the MEM Admin center,

• Navigate to  Devices > Windows > Configuration profiles and click on Create profile
• Select Platform as Windows 10 and later and Profile Type as Settings catalog.

• Give a Name and Description (optional) to the profile.

• In Configuration settings, click Add settings.

• Browse through the Experience category and find Configure Chat Icon settings.

• Set the value of the setting to Disabled.

• Make the necessary assignment for the profile.

• Add the required Scope tag (if any) before finally reviewing the profile to Create it.

Disable Win11 built-in Teams chat with Intune using Custom OMA-URI

In the MEM Admin center,

• Navigate to  Devices > Windows > Configuration profiles and click on Create profile
• Select Platform as Windows 10 and later and Profile Type as Templates and then select Custom.

• Give a Name and Description (optional) to the profile.

• In Configuration settings, click Add.

• Enter the following details:
  • Name: RemoveChat [Anything that you want]
  • Description: [Optional]
  • OMA-URI: ./Device/Vendor/MSFT/Policy/Config/Experience/ConfigureChatIcon
  • Data Type: Integer
  • Value: 3

Ref: Policy CSP – Experience – Windows Client Management | Microsoft Docs

• Once you are done with the configuration, make the necessary Assignment, add the required Applicability rules (if any) and finally review the profile to Create it.

Remove Win11 built-in Teams chat with Intune using PowerShell

For Windows 10 we could use the Microsoft Store for Business and Microsoft Intune to uninstall the built-in Windows Store apps. But for Windows 11, as of now, this is not possible because of the changes in the Store.

Thus, the other way to remove built-in apps from Windows 11 (an equally valid method for Windows 10 as well) would be to use PowerShell script.

In my case, I do use a PS-driven solution to get rid of the Windows 10 built-in apps during the Autopilot provisioning. As such, I can update it to get rid of the Teams chat icon on the Windows 11 devices to be provisioned via Autopilot.

The benefit of the PS method is, I wrap the PS as a Win32 app and then deploy it which is tracked as part of Device ESP ensuring the removal of the built-in apps before the user gets to the Desktop. Further, a PS deployment is a one-time execution whereas a Win32 can be re-triggered for re-execution.

Here is the Github link to the script that I use to remove built-in apps from Windows. You can use the same and make a Win32 app out of it to be deployed from Intune.

Remove Win11 built-in Teams chat with Intune using Proactive Remediation

If you have the license requirement met to use Proactive Remediation which is part of Endpoint Analytics in Intune, then you can leverage the same to detect the presence of built-in Teams app on managed Windows 11 endpoints and if detected, remediate to disable the same.

Sample detection script below.

try {

	$TeamsApp = Get-AppxPackage "*Teams*" -AllUsers  -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
	if ($TeamsApp.Name -eq "MicrosoftTeams")
		{
			Write-Host "Built-in Teams Chat App Detected"
			Exit 1
		}
	ELSE
		{
			Write-Host "Built-in Teams Chat App Not Detected"
			Exit  0
	           }
}
catch {
    $errMsg = $_.Exception.Message
    return $errMsg
    Exit 1
}

Sample remediation script below.

Try{

	Get-AppxPackage -Name "MicrosoftTeams" -AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage
	Get-AppXProvisionedPackage -Online | Where {$_.DisplayName -eq "MicrosoftTeams"} | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online

	Write-Host "Built-In Teams Chat app uninstalled"
	Exit 0
}
catch {
    $errMsg = $_.Exception.Message
    return $errMsg
    Exit 1
}

At The End

Whatever way you choose, the end result is that the built-in Teams chat app gets removed or the app gets disabled which thereby removes the chat icon from the Windows 11 taskbar.

If you liked reading this, do check out the other Windows 11 posts here on my site.