How to Fix Microsoft Teams Won’t Start for New Users

I’ve noticed the registry value “TeamsMachineInstaller” in “HKLM:\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run” is not persistent after Windows 10 upgrade. For example, we are currently upgrading numerous machines from Windows 10-1709 to 1909 and this registry value disappears after the upgrade. This means Teams will no longer start for newly logged-in users after a Windows upgrade has been applied to the machine. 

Solutions

1, Use Group Policy Preferences to re-add the missing Registry Value. 

The Key Path is “SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run”.

The Value data is “%<ProgramFiles>%\Teams Installer\Teams.exe –checkInstall –source=default”

Just a heads up, I’ve used %<ProgramFiles>% because I want the actual registry value to contain “%ProgramFiles%” rather then Group Policy Preferences converting this variable. For anyone who didn’t know, surrounding your Environment Variables with <> in GPP will allow you to pass that variable rather than GPP converting the variable. 

I usually always check the option to “Remove this item when it’s no longer required” to make sure I don’t have to manually add a “Delete”  item in the future. 

I’ve also enabled Item-level targeting to avoid the registry value from being created if the Teams.exe installer doesn’t exist. 

2, Use Microsoft Intune to deploy a PowerShell script if you are using Azure AD only.