Current status
- I need to use "Microsoft Teams"
- I go to download it.
- It asks me to sign in.
- Then it shows this error page.
- Also every time I visit the https://teams.microsoft.com/  page thereafter.
- "Sign out" does not work.

Interestingly, while processing my login it showed an offer to download Microsoft Teams for 0.25 seconds, which is what I wanted to start with, but then the error page kicked up before I could click it.

Now, I could obviously work around it by giving them a third-party cookie exception so their web app can work, however I do not want to use their web app in the first place. So I'd be granting their web app heightened privileges just so that I can sign out of it

This is similar to a problem I am having with Google currently where, due to two Google services merging, I'm signed up for and think I might be getting charged for a service, but I can't cancel my service unless I first agree to the terms of service of the service I don't want

Anyway I think I accidentally found a workaround by just typing http://teams.microsoft.com/downloads  directly into the browser url bar but this is still a weird problem

So I click "Download" and it downloads a 100 MB exe, at which point I think-- wait, is it weird it didn't just kick me to the Microsoft Store? So I go search on the Microsoft Store and I discover Microsoft Teams isn't on the Microsoft Store

Is Microsoft aware that they own Microsoft

It's weird Microsoft does so much product tying and showing bootup screens in Win10 trying to make you use other Microsoft products but it never occurred to them to try gentler approaches such as "make your existing products compatible" or "make the product available to download"

Alternately: Why did they even develop Microsoft Teams in the first place when they could have simply added video chat to Minecraft

UPDATES: Installing the desktop app tried to forcibly log my copy of Win10 into Microsoft, something I'm trying to avoid at all costs (I bypassed this, maybe, by clicking "Microsoft apps only"). Then it asked for my phone number. I'm downloading Teams as an alternative to phones

Does anyone know, if I just gave up and used the web app, would I be allowed to use the Microsoft Teams web app without associating my phone number with my Microsoft account?

Looking around I find it is apparently a not-too-uncommon issue for people to be unable to use Microsoft Teams because it requires entering a phone number but then rejects you if it thinks that phone number is associated w/ a different Microsoft account https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msteams/forum/all/microsoft-teams-requires-phone-number-but-says-it/527478fe-f1c9-4b05-8b16-1a534af49405#:~:text=Based%20on%20your%20description%2C%20when,Multiple%2DFactor%20Authentication%20MFA).

Absentmindedly pondering working around this by reactivating my Microsoft Skype subscription to get a phone number that Microsoft can use for the mandatory 2FA for Microsoft Teams so I can log into Microsoft Teams and make a phone call

Okay so get this. I allow the third party cookies, then I try to log in to the Microsoft Teams web app. It asks how I want to use Teams. I say, friends and family? *It rejects me*. It blocks me from making a Teams account. If I'm not using it for business I don't DESERVE voip

I just need to do my taxes, okay?? I had a problem, I emailed a tax lawyer, he asked if I could do a Microsoft Teams call, I said sure!, now I can't talk to a tax lawyer because I gave the wrong answer to the riddle of the Second of the Questions Three

I backed out and said yes I'm a business. It's asking for the business name and… wait, am I making a teams org? I don't want a teams org. I only wanted to interact with other people's teams orgs. I want a phone call. Why is "join an existing org" not a use case they thought of?!

Is it possible for someone using Teams to initiate a phone call and call *to* someone using Skype? Are these separate networks? If they are separate networks-- why?

It actually appears there was a big pandemic and lots of working from home, so Microsoft went "oh shit we have to capitalize on this!" so they rushed to market their Slack clone, except their app doesn't actually work for WFH, only computers on an IT-managed corporate network

My god. Microsoft monopolied so hard they banned several of their own orgs from writing software https://twitter.com/fumblescript/status/1381714561523281920

The http://answers.microsoft.com  thread above seems to suggest if an account is associated with your phone number you can't forcibly de-associate it. I'm reading this tweet and… what happens if you quit/lose one job then get another that also uses Teams? https://twitter.com/AlexWelcing/status/1381715507502587907

Does Microsoft simply assume one job per lifetime, or do they somehow assume you get a new phone number when you get a new job?

*Glancing at the Skype app I have open* ...so they can give Discord the worst UX also? https://twitter.com/schrotthaufen/status/1381717598182772740

Update: Electron apps are no longer banned from the Microsoft Store. So now the question becomes: Does the Microsoft Teams org know that? https://twitter.com/ben_a_adams/status/1381719940806369281

UPDATE: Although the Microsoft Teams application I installed a few days ago still will not allow me to log in or do anything, it still "helpfully" launches itself on Windows startup, I guess forever now until I uninstall it

UPDATE: Some weeks later I finally got Teams to let me open the application. Unfortunately despite "working" it sometimes does this [image]. Also occasionally it says "your speakers have stopped working" & I have to unplug and replug my HDMI monitor. No other app has this problem

I'm using the "voicemeeter" mixer app, but it appears Teams can only take audio from "voicemeeter" app if voicemeeter was launched AFTER teams. Unfortunately launching voicemeeter AFTER teams triggers the situation where Teams (alone) claims my monitor speakers "aren't working"

I'm trying the browser version of Teams now. Question-- is it normal for Teams in a browser to not give ANY indication on the incoming audio level? I can't tell whether the mic is broken or it's working and Teams just doesn't give feedback when audio is incoming

What's especially awful here is since I haven't created a Teams "org", I can't call *anyone* except the person who I have a specific meeting invite from, which means since there's no mic feedback I have to email them & ask them to join the call early to see if I have audio at all

There's a "test call" option in the Teams desktop app that echoes your voice back to u, but it's not present in the browser app, and since the desktop app is already established not to work I have to use the browser app. Also sometimes the "test call" button crashes the Teams app

UPDATE: I still can't get VB-CABLE to work (and it's possible the problem is VB-CABLE!) but I've got Teams to stop complaining about "your speakers are not working" by switching to a different monitor.

I have never before in my life encountered a problem where a specific app refused to work unless I switched out my monitor for a different monitor, but Teams has managed this.

Good news, I tried a mic test app and it appears VoiceMeeter is not able to send audio to Cable Input to Chrome *at all*, it isn't just Teams. So Microsoft may have made a highly substandard product with Teams but they are not the primary source of pain in my life at this moment

This would all be easier if it weren't that Teams completely forgets my audio input/output setup every time the standalone program is relaunched

Every time the Teams program launches it tries to set my audio output device to be the embedded headphones on my Oculus VR headset and I have to change it. Not only is this inappropriate for a video call, the Oculus VR headset is not currently plugged in

As a fun fact unrelated to my actual problems, every time I reboot my computer right now Teams displays a dialog telling me to "contact my IT department". Thanks Teams.

[To be clear, it doesn't show this when I launch Teams. Only when I reboot the *computer*.]

UPDATE: SWITCHING MONITORS DIDN'T HELP AT ALL! Once a call starts, I get the spurious "your speakers have stopped working" problem even with the other monitor. So it's either Microsoft's fault, or AMD's. This is possibly *less* terrifying than if switching monitors had worked.

ANOTHER UPDATE: I have managed to get audio out of voicemeeter by using the browser version of Teams. Problem: they can hear me but I can't hear them. Browser teams has somehow figured out a way to not play audio to the speakers. I am baffled.

UPDATE: OKAY I THINK I HAVE ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING WORKING, AS LONG AS I SET THINGS UP IN A PARTICULAR WAY AND DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING. NOW TO SEE IF IT JUST AS MYSTERIOUSLY STOPS WORKING AGAIN 5 MINUTES BEFORE THE MEETING THIS WAS ALL IN PREPARATION FOR

CAPITAL LETTERS

One of the things I've discovered from this experience is it's possible in Windows 10 for an application to nab a sound output device in an "exclusive" mode where other applications will fail to write to it, but there's no warning to the user and all resulting failures are silent

Next time I am setting up audio on Linux maybe I will complain less