Microsoft Teams for Windows 26198.304.4946.9672

Microsoft Teams 26198.304.4946.9672 for Windows is the desktop client of Microsoft's team collaboration and video-conferencing application, and you can download it free from Microsoft. It brings chats, channels, meetings, calls and shared files into one window on your PC.

Specifications

What Teams is used for

Teams started as a workplace chat tool and grew into the hub many organisations run their day from. Conversations are organised into teams and channels, so a project, a class or a department keeps its messages, files and meeting notes together instead of spreading them across email threads. From there you can start a video meeting, share your screen, record a call or co-edit a document with colleagues. Schools use it for lessons and homework, companies for everything from daily stand-ups to large town-hall meetings. There is also a personal side: the same app handles group chats and calls with friends and family if you sign in with a personal Microsoft account.

System requirements

Microsoft publishes the full list on its Teams client requirements page. For the Windows desktop app the key figures are:

• Processor: 1.1 GHz or faster, two cores.
• Memory: 4.0 GB RAM.
• Disk space: 3.0 GB available.
• Graphics: DirectX 9 or later for hardware acceleration.
• System: Windows 10 version 10.0.19041 or higher; Windows LTSC editions are excluded for the desktop app.

How to install

1. Open the Microsoft Store and search for Microsoft Teams, or start from teams.microsoft.com.
2. Check that the publisher is Microsoft Corporation and click Get.
3. Launch Teams and sign in with a work, school or personal Microsoft account.
4. Test your camera and microphone in the device settings before your first meeting.

On company computers, Teams is often deployed by IT, so check with your administrator before installing a separate copy. Version history for managed deployments is kept in Microsoft's Teams app versioning notes.

Is it safe?

The Store version and Microsoft's own site are the only sources you need. Be wary of emails inviting you to "update Teams" through an unfamiliar link, a common phishing pattern. Organisation admins control external access, so messages from outside your company are usually labelled.

Price

The app is free. A free personal plan covers chats and meetings with some limits; business features come with Microsoft's paid business subscriptions.

Pros and cons

• Pro: chat, meetings and files in one place.
• Pro: works closely with Word, Excel and other Microsoft apps.
• Con: the desktop client is demanding on older PCs.
• Con: the interface can feel crowded for simple one-to-one calls.

Alternatives

Zoom and Google Meet are simpler choices for video calls. For community chat with voice channels, Discord sits in the same category.