Microsoft Teams Policy Settings Not in the Admin Center

The Microsoft Teams admin center is a vast improvement over its Skype for Business Online predecessor. It is responsive and has a modern interface. However, the admin center does not show every Microsoft Teams policy or configuration available. PowerShell to the rescue!

In this post, you will learn about a few of the Microsoft Teams policy settings and configurations not available in the admin center. This blog post will be a running list of interesting policy settings and configurations that I find missing from the Teams admin center.

Connecting to Skype for Business Online PowerShell

To manage Microsoft Teams policy settings and configurations, you create a connection out to Skype for Business Online PowerShell. Microsoft has not announced if they are renaming this service once Skype Online is retired later this year.

Microsoft now includes connecting to Skype for Business Online PowerShell from within the Microsoft Teams PowerShell module. If you are unsure how to connect to Skype for Business Online PowerShell, Microsoft Docs has a great article on how to do so:
Microsoft Docs: Manage Skype for Business Online with PowerShell

If you run into problems, check out my article Errors Connecting to Skype for Business Online PowerShell Module.

Note that Microsoft retired the Skype for Business Online Windows PowerShell module in February 2021. It will no longer be available for download, and Skype for Business Online will stop accepting connections from it later this year.

Meeting Policy

Here are some hidden gems in the Microsoft Teams Meeting policy.

Attendee Engagement Report

Allow or prevent the Teams meeting organizer from downloading a meeting attendance report. Microsoft disabled this feature by default.

# Enable report download
Set-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy -Identity "{Policy Name}" `
    -AllowEngagementReport "Enabled"
# Disable report download
Set-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy -Identity "{Policy Name}" `
    -AllowEngagementReport "Disabled"

Breakout Rooms

Meeting organizers group participants into smaller, more-focused sessions in their own meeting space. The organizers brings everyone back into the main meeting after a set amount of time.

# Allow Breakout Rooms
Set-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy -Identity "{Policy Name}" `
    -AllowBreakoutRooms $true
# Disable Breakout Rooms
Set-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy -Identity "{Policy Name}" `
    -AllowBreakoutRooms $false

Background Effects

Control whether users have access to video background effects such as blur, Microsoft-provided images, and user-uploaded images.

Read more about managing Microsoft Teams backgrounds!

# Disable all background effects
Set-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy -Identity "{Policy Name}" `
    -VideoFiltersMode "NoFilters"
# Allow only blur effect
Set-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy -Identity "{Policy Name}" `
    -VideoFiltersMode "BlurOnly"
# Allow blur and default images from Microsoft
Set-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy -Identity "{Policy Name}" `
    -VideoFiltersMode "BlurAndDefaultBackgrounds"
# Allow all filters including user-uploaded images
Set-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy -Identity "{Policy Name}" `
    -VideoFiltersMode "AllFilters"

Calling Policy

Here are some settings for the Calling Policy only available in PowerShell.

1:1 Call Recording

Microsoft recently decoupled individual call recording out of the Meeting Policy to the Calling Policy. By default, 1:1 call recording is disabled.

# Enable 1:1 call recording
Set-CsTeamsCallingPolicy -Identity "{Policy Name}" `
    -AllowCloudRecordingForCalls $true
# Disable 1:1 call recording
Set-CsTeamsCallingPolicy -Identity "{Policy Name}" `
    -AllowCloudRecordingForCalls $false

Audio Conferencing

Here are some Audio Conferencing bridge settings only available in PowerShell.

Email Notification Customization

Microsoft Teams sends emails to users when one of the following events occur on their audio conferencing account:

• Enabled or disabled for audio conferencing
• Reset of dial-in conferencing PIN
• Changes to conference ID
• Changes to default dial-in conference number

Learn more about Microsoft Teams Audio Conferencing dial-out capabilities!

You use PowerShell to enable or disable these automatic email alerts:

# Disable automatic email notifications
Set-CsOnlineDialInConferencingTenantSettings `
    -AutomaticallySendEmailsToUsers $false
# Enable automatic email notifications
Set-CsOnlineDialInConferencingTenantSettings `
    -AutomaticallySendEmailsToUsers $true

If you enable the email notifications, you can make customizations to the email’s properties, such as:

• SendEmailFromAddress
• SendEmailFromDisplayName
• SendEmailFromOverride

You specify the SendEmailFromAddress and SendEmailFromDisplayName only when SendEmailFromOverride is set to $true.

# Enable From override and customize information
Set-CsOnlineDialInConferencingTenantSettings -SendEmailFromOverride $true `
    -SendEmailFromAddress "{From Address}" `
    -SendEmailFromDisplayName "{From Display Name}"

Closing

So far, these are a few of my favorite Microsoft Teams policy and configuration settings that are only available through PowerShell. Do you have any that you regularly configure through PowerShell? If so, drop me a note below or find me on Twitter or LinkedIn to discuss further.

Enjoyed this article? Check out more of my articles on Microsoft Teams by clicking here.