Updated Guidance on Custom Backgrounds for your Microsoft Teams Rooms

Hello readers, hope you’re well.

One of my most popular posts in the last year is one on changing the background on the Front of Room display on your Microsoft Teams Room. It’s popular for views and very popular for comments. It seems a lot of you have had problems. I often hear people say it doesn’t work at all or it does work, but after a reboot the background is gone and back to default. While I have never seen this behaviour, I know it can be frustrating.

A few thoughts on troubleshooting

• Make sure you aren’t uploading a new XML which is overriding the one you ran manually
• Make sure you are uploading as admin, while the Skype user is still logged in.
  • To enter admin mode, attach a keyboard to the PC and hit the Windows key 5 times and Enter the admin password to log in.
  • You can also upload the image file and XML using remote file explorer or Powershell. Or by using a remote management tool
• Keep in mind that Microsoft is changing it a little (keep reading)

If you haven’t spotted the Message Centre post yet you can read it here. The subject is A new default home screen and an enhanced custom background feature for Teams Rooms on Windows.

What’s happening?

I already wrote about the refreshed UI on MTRoW. One thing to note is it isn’t just a new user interface, but a whole new MTR app. With that app comes improved navigation, more buttons on the home screen, a new look calendar on the touch console AND on the FoR display. It also gives admins the ability to change the left and right front of room displays independently and also the ability to change the background on the touch console.

What’s needed?

• MTR app version 4.17 or later
• Running the new UI/MTR app
• MTR Pro license
• up to three image files (PNG, JPEG or BMP), sized and laid out correctly and saved in the correct location
• an XML file with some new attributes, saved in the same location
• and a reboot

The new attributes are

1. ThemeName
   • This gives your new theme a name so you can pick it from the drop down list
2. CustomBackgroundMainFoRDisplay
   • This changes the main or right hand display (with the calendar on it) in dual HD screen rooms or the entire display in 21:9
3. CustomBackgroundExtendedFoRDisplay
   • This changed the background on the second, or left hand display in dual display rooms
4. CustomBackgroundConsole
   • This allows you to change the background on the touch console

Example XML

 <SkypeSettings>
    <Theming>  
       <ThemeName>Custom</ThemeName>
       <CustomBackgroundMainFoRDisplay>MainDisplay.jpg</CustomBackgroundMainFoRDisplay>
       <CustomBackgroundExtendedFoRDisplay>ExtendedDisplay.jpg</CustomBackgroundExtendedFoRDisplay>  
       <CustomBackgroundConsole>ConsoleDisplay.jpg</CustomBackgroundConsole>  
    </Theming>
 </SkypeSettings>

Save the file as SkypeSettings.xml

Image size rules

To avoid cropping of background images, use the following image dimensions (based on 1080p display standards) for each screen aspect ratio respectively: 

• 16:9 – 1920 x 1080 px – for the left and right displays. This is either for single displays or independent left and right images
• For dual 16:9 displays use one 3840 x 1080 image
• 21:9 – 2560 x 1080 px – for rooms with a single 21:9 display. Think Signature or Front Row rooms

For the touch console it will depend on the aspect ratio of the console. There are apparently three

• 16:9 – 1920 x 1080 px
• 16:10 – 1280 x 800 px (most common in my experience)
• 3:2 – 1920 x 800 px

If you have a 4K display you can use 3840 x 2160 px, but if the image doesn’t match the display resolution the image will scale to match the display resolution. This means it could stretch in one or both dimenstions and distort.

If you use a 1080p image with a 16:9 aspect ratio on a 21:9 display it will fill the frame and crop from the centre. Meaning it will likely lose the top and bottom of the image.

If you use a 4K image on a 1080p display it will also crop from the centre. Meaning it could lose the top, bottom and sides of the image.

Minimum resolutions

Front-of-room displays and touch consoles have minimum supported custom background resolutions. Front-of-room displays support a minimum resolution of 1920 x 1080.

Touch consoles support a minimum resolution of 1280 x 800.

Important: If the resolution of any custom background is below the minimum supported resolutions, all displays default to No Theme!

I get a LOT of questions in my blog and on social about this. So make sure EVERYTHING is correct

Areas to avoid

The Front of Room displays now have obstacles to avoid, such as the calendar box, clock and room name or help text.

• The calendar box is 512 x 585 px and is located at the coordinates 1312, 248 in rooms with a single 16:9 display, 3232, 248 in rooms with dual 16:9 displays and 1912, 248 in rooms with a 21:9 display.
• The clock and room info is 280 x 130 px and is located at the coordinates 96, 96 in rooms with single 16:9 or 21:9 displays or on the left hand (extended) display in dual display rooms.
• The help text is 500 x 40 px and is located at the coordinates 96, 946 in rooms with single 16:9 or 21:9 displays or on the left hand (extended) display in dual display rooms.

Microsoft has this guidance here in this article. But it isn’t up to date.

The touch console has similar guidance for areas to avoid. As soon as Microsoft updates the exact dimansions and coordinates I’ll update the post. But for now, for you, I went ahead and measured it and constructed a sample.

• The calendar box is 504 x 635 px and located at coordinates 735, 84
• The clock and room name is 333 x 128 px and located at coordinates 44, 56
• The Buttons area is 467 x 346 px and located at coordinates 129, 229
• Cortana is 345 x 65 px and located at coordinates 44, 693
• The Help Button 44 x 44 px and located at coordinates 1226, 748

And here’s the sample

For the touch console in particular I would keep it to a fairly simple, dark image or just pick a darker colour. The buttonsm room name and clock, Cortana and the help button are all white. So the lighter the image, the more likely the stuff will get lost.

For the Front of Room displays you’ll also want to keep the image dark in places with the text. In particular the top and bottom left on the left hand (extended) display in dual screen rooms and the same for single screen rooms.

How to do it

Step 1 – create your images

Step 2 – construct your XML

Step 3 – Copy the image files and XML to the MTR PC

Save your XML file as SkypeSettings.xml and copy it and the image files to this location.

C:\Users\Skype\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.SkypeRoomSystem_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState

You can do this however you want. If you connect to the MTR PC remotely, log in as admin (attach a keyboard and hit the Windows Key 5 times), browse to the folder and paste them there.

If you want to use remote commandline or file explorer, go for it. Just keep in mind you might get a permissions block navigating past AppData.

Either way, just copy the files there.

Step 4 – Restart the MTR PC

The XML only gets processed by the MTR after a restart. Once you have restarted, the new wallpaper will be on your front of room display(s) and touch console (if you used one).

Here are a couple of examples

FAQ

You’ll all be asking if this can be done on MTR on Android. The answer is no. Hopefully that will change in the future for consistency. But for now it can’t be changed.

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And that’s it. Hope it was useful