How to Create Custom Themes For Microsoft Teams Rooms

As we start the new way of working in the second half of 2021, whether it’s back into the office or working hybrid, one aspect we often see left behind are your meeting spaces. As organizations come back into the office, meeting rooms will no longer meet their collaborative requirements.

We often see when people use the defaults to install Microsoft Teams Rooms because you may want to use the simple themes available to you… however, in reality, for a large percentage of organizations, the default themes are not suitable, or you want to be able to use your corporate wallpaper/ branding and color schemes.

There was once talk about having the ability to use Microsoft Teams Rooms as a digital signage unit too. However, this functionality has been removed from any roadmap items to bring more relevant items such as proximity join, Cortana integration, casting, and social distancing alerts that are more prevalent and required since Covid-19. The digital signage would have meant that we could have even more customization to the overall Microsoft Teams Room aspects.

How do we get the Microsoft Teams Rooms wallpaper configured and what is required?

Perquisites are as follows:

Remote access:

Method One; Remote desktop:

There are two ways of connecting, I often find accessing the remote desktop using the default admin account is the easiest but must be enabled first.  In addition, the remote end device must accept the RDP connection by clicking yes on the touch panel to allow remote administration onto the device.

Once connected you can browse to the location where the config and the wallpapers will reside.

The XML and Wallpapers will reside in the folder:

C:UsersSkypeAppDataLocalPackagesMicrosoft.SkypeRoomSystem_8wekyb3d8bbweLocalState

Access this by running This PC and pasting in the above link

Method two; remote file share:

The device can be accessed through a remote file share to the required file share which can be obtained from

\HostnameC$UsersSkypeAppDataLocalPackagesMicrosoft.SkypeRoomSystem_8wekyb3d8bbweLocalState

Ensure that the Turn on network sharing for the security level you’re willing to accept

 The Wallpaper:

• The image must be a .bmp, .jpg, .jpeg, or a .png file
• The wallpaper must be 3840×1080 pixels in size
• Microsoft has created a Custom Theme Photoshop Template which can be found here

How the process works:

By default, the Microsoft Teams Room system will review the SkypeSettings.xml file each evening at 2:00 am, local time, each evening when the device is reset after a 30-minute pause and restarted at 2:30 am.

Once the device is cycled or the device is restarted at 2:30 am when updates and maintenance are run, the device will become updated with the new configuration. The SkypeSettings.xml will be ingested, the configuration included in the configuration Skype Room System application (still called this in the Microsoft Store). To amend the configuration we must create the SkypeSettings.xml in the correct folder so it can be ingested or forced into the appropriate settings.

Configuration/Setup:

Create an XML file called skypesettings.xml using notepad inside the folder:

C:UsersSkypeAppDataLocalPackagesMicrosoft.SkypeRoomSystem_8wekyb3d8bbweLocalState

Paste the following configuration information into the config. This will add the Skype settings to the application config. This makes a few assumptions in this example, The color of the highlighted meeting will be in Teams purple.  The wallpaper is called wallpaper.jpg; these can be changed to suit your organization.

<SkypeSettings>
<Theming>
<ThemeName>Custom</ThemeName>
<CustomThemeImageUrl>wallpaper.jpg</CustomThemeImageUrl>
<CustomThemeColor>
<RedComponent>70</RedComponent>
<GreenComponent>78</GreenComponent>
<BlueComponent>184</BlueComponent>
</CustomThemeColor>
</Theming>
</SkypeSettings>

Notes:

• Microsoft Teams default logo color is formally known as Ocean Blue, which has a Red, Green, Blue of 70, 78,184.
• Skype for Business default logo color is Red, Green, Blue of 1, 120, 199.
• The image must be the correct resolution or it won’t work
• the file name is case sensitive
• If you’re using a single TV, by default the right-hand side of the wallpaper is used, whilst the left hand is kept hidden.

Force ingestion

To force the ingest of the SkypeSettings XML run the following from the Command Prompt:

%SystemRoot%System32WindowsPowerShellv1.0powershell.exe -executionpolicy unrestricted %SystemDrive%Rigelx64ScriptsProvisioningScriptLaunch.ps1 NightlyReboot.ps1

Once the PowerShell runs, the device will reboot, this will take

Local device configuration

Completing the above tasks will allow the Custom theme to be propagated with the relevant theme, however, the theme will not be selected on the device itself. To do this on the device and click on More (ellipses), Settings, (authenticate Admin/sfb by default), Select a theme, and chose Custom.  The template will show as blank before you select and then it will upload the correct image and custom color configuration. Once the theme is used, you will see it display correctly on the Microsoft Teams Room device as the custom theme.